Antrim Football League Division 2
Dunloy 3-06 Glenravel 1-13
Aodh O’Loan reports from Pearse Park
When Ryan McQuillan pointed from forty five yards out, two minutes into injury time he put Glenravel into the lead for the first and only time in this game. They would go on and hold out the Dunloy onslaught for the next three minutes and steal the league points in this entertaining game of football.
A strong breeze blew down into the right corner of the Dunloy pitch very much favouring the team playing with wind advantage which Dunloy chose to do in the opening half very effectively. With three minutes on the clock a long ball into the square was seized on by Dunloy’s corner forward Shane Dooey who managed to twist and turn, avoiding the attention of Glenravel’s defence and plant the ball past Johnny Fyfe in goals to give his team a perfect start. Dunloy doubled that lead with three consecutive points, a free from Mickey Smith and two from the impressive Chrissy McMahon who proved a handful for Con Magees throughout the game. Five minutes gone and Dunloy were leading by 1-03 to 0-00, a fair reflection of their dominance in that opening period. On ten minutes though, a point attempt from a free by Ryan McQuillan was held up slightly in the breeze and deceived the entire Dunloy goal line defence to drop just under the bar to reduce the margin to three points. Spurred by that break, the visitors mounted several attacks as they gained confidence and were rewarded with two great scores from play in the twelfth minute, Calum Higgins and Charlie Henry the providers. One minute later Dunloy would bag their second goal from Caolan Gillan in the other corner to leave four points between them with one quarter of the game gone. It would take almost another quarter before either team could raise a flag such was the dominance of the defences combined with a strengthening breeze in an error strewn second quarter.
Calum Higgins collected a high ball in front of goal with four minutes of the half remaining and was adjudged to have been fouled as he pulled the trigger. The normally dependable Rian Lennon stepped up to take the kick and when Conor McGilligan pulled off a great save, Lennon was first on the scene of the breaking ball but his clever dink over the keeper found the underside of the bar and rebounded to safety. Callum Higgins pointed from close in on twenty eight minutes when a goal chance looked possible and on the stroke of half time, an unfortunate slip in Glenravel’s defence left Mickey Smith time to collect the ball and send a rasper to the net off the underside of the crossbar from twelve yards out. Ray Matthews brought proceedings to a halt and Dunloy may have felt a tad fortunate to be going in six points to the good, 3-03 to 1-03.
When the two teams returned to battle the wind had eased slightly but very much in Con Magee’s favour this half. Ryan McQuillan was finding a little space around the forty five yard line and putting it to good use with three points in the opening eight minutes of the half, in the middle of which Caolan Gillan pointed for the home side. Chrissy McMahon put over a lovely score and when Mickey Smith scored from a free at the end of the third quarter Dunloy’s lead was still six points, 3-06 to 1-06, however, that would be the tally they would declare on having failed to trouble the umpires in that final quarter. On the other hand Glenravel went on to record a further seven points, two frees from Conor McNeil, points from Declan Traynor, Calum Higgins, Daniel McQuillan (who would have felt hard done by when his goal attempt in the fifty sixth minute came back off the inside of the post, across the goal line and out to safety), and two points from Ryan McQuillan including that all important winner two minutes into injury time.
Dunloy will feel this was one that got away from them as they had dominated the opening exchanges but Glenravel made better use of the ball when playing with wind advantage in the second half and maybe just about deserved the victory. Both teams are in action again twice in the coming week. Dunloy make the trip to Moneyglass on Sunday Apr 10th and they welcome Aldergrove on Wednesday, April 13th. Glenravel travel to Belfast where they face Ardoyne on Sunday and then welcome neighbours All Saints to Maginn Park the following Wednesday. Division 2 is proving to be a gruelling schedule at the moment; that will be five games for all teams in a two week period. They’ll welcome the two week break in the second half off April.