All County Hurling League Division 3
Cloughmills St Brigid’s 2-14 Cushendun Emmet’s 2-16
With no football to worry about Cloughmills and Cushenun were at a loose end this weekend and sensibly brought forward their league game which was actually scheduled for October. Initially the clubs made contact to arrange a friendly but one of the parties suggested that playing the league game would be a better idea and so it was hurriedly arranged in Cloughmills.
And what a useful workout it turned out to be as both teams played some great hurling in a hard fought contest which was close all the way through, the Emmet’s just getting the edge in the end by a two point margin
Cloughmills started with an early point from full forward Joseph Smyth but Cushendun came back strongly with points from Pearse Bannon, Conaloith McNeill, Davy Morgan (2) and Donal O’Hara to go 0-5 to 0-1 clear. A goal from James Doherty got the Biddies back in the game and for the remainder of the first half they held to upper hand as they went on to lead by 1-5 to 0-7 at the break.
After the break the Emmet’s came out strongly and boosted by a Davy Morgan goal in they hit 1-4 in the first four minutes to go six up. Three pointed frees from Mickey Devlin got Cloughmills going again but because of the Emmet’s early second half blitz the home side were always playing catch up. However when Joseph Smyth scored his second goal in the 59th minute the gap was suddenly down to a single point, but Cushendun reacted well and late points from ‘Loaf’ McNeill and Davy Morgan, in reply to one by Steven Smyth for Cloughmills, sent the visitors home to the Glens with a two point winning margin.
