O’Neill’s All County Hurling League – Division 2

Cloughmills 0-21 Ballycastle 2-15

An injury time point from corner-forward Steven Smyth earned Cloughmills a share of the spoils and ended Ballycastle’s 100% record in Division 2 of the All County Hurling League  on Wednesday evening. Both teams had chances to collect full points in the final minutes of an exciting game as the scores flew over at both ends, and when Ciaran Clarke pointed a free in the final minute of normal time it looked like the visitors might just grab the win, but Smyth did well to win possession in the left corner less than a minute later and he sent the ball over to earn his team a deserved draw.

The first half had a bizarre scoring pattern as Ballycastle hit five points without reply in the opening ten minutes, two from Diarmuid McShane, and one apiece from Eamon Elliott, Conor Boyd and KB McShane. The visitors were bossing things during that opening spell but incredibly they would add just one more point in the final twenty minutes of the half as Cloughmills took control of the game. Steven Smyth opened his team’s account in the 11^th minute to start a scoring run of seven points without reply and with the self-belief staring to return to the Cloughmills players Mickey Devlin (3), Stevie Smyth (2) and Liam Kearns all found the target to put their team 0-7 to 0-5 ahead. Conor Boyd ended a 17 minute scoreless spell for the Town with a neat point in the 28^th minute, but a massive strike from a free ninety metres from the Ballycastle goal saw Mickey Delvin restore his team’s two point cushion at the break.

The second half began with Cloughmills pulling four points clear with two fine strikes from Liam Kearns but points from Ciaran Butler and Diarmuid McShane cut the gap before McShane put his team ahead with a well taken goal. It was score for score for the next ten minutes as Devlin, Smith, Kearns and Dobbin hit the target for Cloughmills in reply to scores from Eamon Elliott, TT Butler, KB McShane and James McLister for Ballycastle. It appeared that Ballycastle had made a significant move when KB McShane grabbed his team’s second goal with a fine strike from 25 meters, but Cloughmills cancelled that out with three points in two minutes, two of them from Kearns and the other from Mickey Devlin. Ciaran Clarke, who had played most of the game in goals for Ballycastle following the late withdrawal of goalkeeper Ryan McGarry, was brought up front for the last ten minutes and he knocked over two points from frees to add to one from play by James McLister. However the Biddies had an answer to each one of those scores as Ruairi Laverty, Mickey Devlin and Stevie Smyth hit the target to earn their team a share of the spoils.

Cloughmills: Chris McKiernan, Steven Martin, John McGuckian, Sean McKendry, James Doherty, Michael Morrison, Gary McCollum, Mickey Devlin, Martin Dobbin, Aaron Smiley, Conor Laverty, Ruairi Laverty, Geoffrey Og Laverty, Liam Kearns, Steven Smyth.

Ballycastle: Ciaran Clarke, Conor Donnelly, John McLister, Odhran Donnelly, Neal McAuley, Matthew Donnelly, Oisin McAuley, Conor Boyd, KB McShane, Eamon Elliott, TT Butler, Ciaran Butler, Diarmuid McShane, Shane Staunton, Aaron Mooney.

Referee – Vincent Boyle (Dunloy)

Pics by John McIlwaine