NEWRY CITY 3 WARRENPOINT TOWN 3
A CLINICAL Keith Johnston hat-trick earned Warrenpoint Town a deserved draw against Newry City in an absorbing friendly at The Showgrounds on Saturday.
The Championship Two newcomers twice came from behind to level with their Premiership neighbours after Matt Hazley's early free kick had given Newry the lead and a Paul Keenan brace had given the home side a two goal cushion.
Keenan should have given the home side the lead in the seventh minute but Point goalkeeper, Johnny Parr, did well to block the goalbound shot with his legs.
However, Newry were in front less than a minute later when Hazley bent a free kick, awarded after Darren King had been clattered on the edge of the box, round the wall and low into the bottom left corner.
Newry missed two gilt edged chances to double their lead Keenan dragging a shot wide after outmuscling Parr and Chris McGrath on 16 minutes, and Conor Downey volleying wide a minute later which was erased on 27 minutes by Johnston, who calmly rounded Andy Coleman to fire the ball into the roof of the net from a narrow angle, after Sean Mullan's incisive ball had split the Newry defence.
A hectic last seven minutes of the half began with Newry regaining the lead through Keenan, who blasted the ball across goal into the right corner, giving Parr no chance, after Francis Murphy had capitalised on the visitors' hesitancy.
Keenan doubled his tally for the day a minute before the break, unstoppably heading Hazley's cross from the left into the back of the net at the back post.
However, there was still time for another goal before the break. Johnston pounced on Newry's inability to deal with a long ball, getting goalside and delightfully lobbing a fully stretched Coleman from 15 yards.
Newry came out for the second half keen to restore their two goal lead, and would have done so but for Point defender Johnny Cowan making a superb last ditch tackle on Andy Graham, and Parr making a fine reaction stop to keep out Gerard Rowe's snapshot.
Warrenpoint began to get back into the match and got their equaliser in the 67th minute when Johnston got up after a foul by Rowe and did the mirror opposite of what Hazley had done earlier bending the free kick around the wall and into the far corner of the net.
A minute later Parr came to the Point's rescue, getting the slightest fingertip touch on Hazley's 30 yard top corner bound piledriver to concede a corner.
As the game petered out, Warrenpoint came closest to getting the winner, though Ronan Kinney, under pressure from Ruairi Devlin, skewed his eight-yard effort wide of the left post on 79 minutes, and two minutes later he stabbed the ball wide after Gregory Curtis's short corner had found him in space.
NEWRY CITY: Andy Coleman, Davy Munster, Ross Black, Andy McCoy, Stephen Ferguson, Darren King, Conor Downey, Matt Hazley, Paul Keenan, Francis Murphy, Neil Teggart. Subs: Andy Graham, James Walker, Ruairi Devlin, Gerard Rowe, Gerry Flynn.
WARRENPOINT TOWN: Johnny Parr, Gregory Curtis, Davy O'Connor, John Boyle, Johnny Cowan, Chris McGrath, Ronan Kinney, Sean Parr, Joe McEvoy, Keith Johnston, Sean Mullan. Subs: Stevie Jones, Ciaran O'Connor.