St. Brigid’s Cloughmills who recorded their first win of the season when they defeated St. Gall’s on Saturday.

O’Neill’s Sports All County Hurling League

Division Two

St Brigids, Cloughmills 1-14 St Galls 0-11

Saturday March 31

Cloughmills

The Biddies recorded their first league win of the season on Saturday afternoon after seeing off the challenge of St Galls.  Six points separated the sides at the end of the hour with Conor Laverty’s second half goal the game changer.

It’s a welcome boost for the Cloughmills men after their defeat to Tír na nÓg in the opening round of fixtures with Liam Kearns also impressing on his return to the starting 15.  The Biddies ace marksman missed all of last year through a cruciate injury and finished the match as top scorer, ending the game with a personal tally 0-7.

Although they performed much better than their last outing against Armoy, St Galls will be eager to get points on the board.  Division Two is a tight affair where teams can just as easily find themselves in a relegation fight or in the hunt for promotion.  Early momentum can define a league season and it hasn’t been the ideal start for the west Belfast men, but they know they will have to show as much improvement next week again if they are to start claiming league points.

When they pick the bones out of this match, St Galls will look at their efforts in the first half for the answers.  Although they went into the interval with a two point lead, that was the very least they deserved having performed well but lacked accuracy in front of the posts.  They struggled for a cutting edge in attack while missing the target on eight occasions.

Playing with the help of a stiff breeze, the Milltown Row men dominated the early stages with Tomás O’Ciarán and Ryan Irvine particularly impressing.  Despite the St Galls domination however, the home side were efficient in attack with the Laverty brothers on the three-quarter line and Kearns at full forward causing plenty of problems.  St Galls continued to probe without much reward in a physical first half.  Scores were hard to come by for both sides but the highlight of the opening 30 minutes was Michael Devlin’s opening score for the Biddies – the talented midfielder splitting the posts from a side line in the fourth minute.

Adam O’Hare, St. Gall’s is closed down by John McGuckian and Stephen Martin, Cloughmills

Cloughmills had the wind at their back in the second half and scores from Kearns and Devlin brought the sides level once again before Mark Napier’s third point of the match gave St Galls the lead once again.  Geoffrey Og Laverty and Napier swapped points as both sides searched for the upper-hand but it was Cloughmills who delivered.  Having moved Conor Laverty into the edge of the square for the second half, the tactical switch paid dividend as the Biddies forward landed the match defining score when he found the back of Piarais McCaffrey’s net.

It sparked a run of 1-3 without reply for the home side with Aaron Smiley, the lively Michael Reid and Kearns raising the white flag.  Napier responded for the visitors to score his fifth point of the match but a brace of frees from Kearns gave the score line a healthy reflection for the Biddies.

St Galls went in search for goals but they couldn’t find anyway through a superb Cloughmills rear-guard who will be delighted to have kept a clean sheet having shipped three majors in their last outing.

The Biddies now travel to Naomh Éanna next Sunday while St Galls travel to Randalstown and a match with Tír na nÓg as the hunt for the first league points continues.

St Brigids: Chris McKiernan; Steven Martin, John McGuckian, Sean McKendry; Daniel McLaughlin, Michael Morrison, Joe Smyth; Michael Devlin, Aaron Smiley; Conor Laverty, James Doherty, Geoffrey Og Laverty; Michael Reid, Liam Kearns, Eoin Dobbin.

Scorers for St Brigids: Liam Kearns 0-7 (5 f’s); Conor Laverty 1-2; Michael Devlin 0-2; Aaron Smiley 0-1; Geoffrey Og Laverty 0-1; Michael Reid 0-1

St Galls: Piaras McCaffrey; Aidan Gribbon, Stephen Morrison, David Sheehan; Ryan Irvine, Joseph McDaniel, Ruairi Wilson; Niall O’Neill, Jack Hopkins; Mark Napier, Tomás O’Ciarán, Lorcán O’Ciarán; Gregory McGreavey, Adam O’Hare, Colm McCluskey.

Scorers for St Galls: Tomás O’Ciarán 0-6 (4 f’s, 1 ’65); Mark Napier 0-5

Referee: Alan Nash (Doire Trasna)

St. Gall’s who lost to St. Brigid’s Cloughmills on Saturday.