Waterford Utd 1 Drogheda Utd 1:Drogheda United had a golden opportunity at the RSC last night to leapfrog St Patrick's Athletic and take over the top spot in the league table.
But, despite going behind to a 26th-minute goal from Declan O'Brien, Waterford United refused to surrender and were rewarded with a dramatic 90th-minute equaliser from Darryl Kavanagh.
The visitors were quietly confident of taking the points but the bottom-of-the-table side upped their game to match the occasion and, on more than a few occasions, all that was missing was a measure of good fortune that would have earned them a much earlier equaliser.
Drogheda opened the scoring with a well-struck goal from their first corner of the game. Shane Robinson's shot through a crowded area was deflected out by David Breen, and Stephen Bradley swung the ball in from the right for O'Brien to volley a rasping shot to the net from eight yards.
The in-form O'Brien almost had a second goal for Drogheda nine minutes into the second half but his skilful lob over the goalkeeper's head trickled just wide of the far post.
Waterford fought to get back on level terms but Paul McCarthy struck weakly at Mikko Vilmunen on 56 minutes and headed over the bar from an Alan Mulcahy free 10 minutes later.
Ten minutes from the end, Robinson unleashed a powerful low volley from a Simon Webb cross but Dean Delaney stretched full length to steer the ball away.
Minutes later at the other end David Breen saw his effort from the edge of the area brush the topside of the crossbar.
The travelling fans were already celebrating as the game entered the final minute of normal time but they were silenced when a Shane Harte corner from the right was flicked on by David Breen to Kavanagh, who headed home at the far post.
WATERFORD UNITED:Delaney, Flynn, Hedderman, Breen, Browne, Warren, Kavanagh, McCarthy, Sullivan (Mulcahy, 61 mins), Harte, Brosnan.
DROGHEDA UNITED: Vilmunen, Webb, Gray, Robinson, O'Brien, Shelly, Bradley (Lynch, 58 mins), Byrne, Zayed (Fitzpatrick, 82 mins), Keegan, Cahill.
Referee: D Tomney (Dublin).
