Feis Cup
Quarter Final
Dunloy 1-15 Ballycastle 2-13
Two goals in the space of five first half minutes proved to be pivotal at Pearse Park on Friday evening as Ballycastle defeated Dunloy in the Feis Cup. Diarmuid McShane and Cathal Connor with the majors but it took two massive points from placed ball from Conor Boyd to edge the Town past the Cuchullains with just the minimum between the sides at the final whistle.
Both sides had experimental starting 15’s with a plethora of county players missing and experience on the side line. Dunloy played with the wind in the first half and made a lightning start, scoring their goal in the third minute. Oisin Elliott with the pace and finish to add to his opening score. Elliott would top score for the home side with his 1-4 all coming from play in what was another promising performance from the young Cuchullain.
Once Ballycastle settled into the game, they looked fluent and moved the sliotar well into the wind. Ciaran Butler with a couple of early points while Diarmuid McShane’s major was perfect forward play, reading the breaking ball and taking advantage of an error in the Dunloy full back line.
Cathal Connor’s major came from a long ball sent into the inside forward line by Ronan Laverty. Connor came under huge pressure from the Dunloy defence but he managed to unorthodoxly squeeze the sliotar beyond Callum Mullan in the Dunloy goals.
The Cuchullains response to Ballycastle’s second goal was emphatic. The Town wouldn’t score for another 15 minutes while Dunloy scored eight points without reply with Deaglan Smith, Elliott, Ronan Molloy and Ryan McFarland all influential to give the Cuchullians a four point lead.
Ballycastle finished the half with a brace of points from Feargal McKiernan and Lorcan Donnelly to cut the Dunloy lead to two points at the half way point. HT Dunloy 1-10 Ballycastle 2-5
The early stages of the second half could only be described as scrappy with neither side finding any sort of fluency. Ballycastle played with more urgency and fired the opening two scores of the half to restore parity by the 39th minute while it took a further four minutes before the Cuchullains added to their half time score, a free from Nicky McKeague.
Ballycastle had an edge in open play and played with momentum, drawing frees around the middle third with Diarmuid McShane finding the accuracy required to give his side the lead with 13 minutes to play but in truth they should have been ahead by more with a number of chances coming and going.
Dunloy dug deep once more and as the half progressed, they began to make better use of the sliotar. Deaglan Smith, Kevin Molloy and Elliott all splitting the uprights from open play in the space of three minutes while the visitors replied through Mark McClean and McShane (’65) to leave the sides tied once more with four minutes remaining.
Deaglan Smith’s fourth point of the game edged Dunloy ahead, a superb piece of individual skill to get the yard of space he needed but the Town finished on top with centre half Conor Boyd firing over two massive frees to give his side the win at the end of an entertaining hour of hurling.
TEAMS
Dunloy: Callum Mullan; Eamon Smyth, Karl O’Kane, Conor Kinsella; Padraig McGilligan, Conor McKinley, Ronan Molloy; Anton McGrath, Nicky McKeague; Kevin Molloy, Gabriel McTaggart, Ryan McFarland; Chrissy McMahon, Deaglan Smith, Oisin Elliott
Subs: Barry Scott for R McFarland (44); Eoin McFerran for C McMahon (44); Ryan Mort for G McTaggart (56)
Scorers: O Elliott 1-4; N McKeague 0-4 (3f); D Smith 0-3; R Molloy 0-1; A McGrath 0-1; K Molloy 0-1; R McFarland 0-1
Ballycastle: Benny Connor; Oran Kearney, Dermot Donnelly, Mark McClean; James Bakewell, Conor Boyd, Ronan Laverty; Ronan McCarry, Lorcan Donnelly; Seamus McAuley, Ciaran Butler, Feargal McKiernan; Tiernan Smyth, Diarmuid McShane, Cathal Connor
Subs: Conleth McCaughan for F McKiernan (41); Joe McToal for S McAuley (44)
Scorers: D McShane 1-5 (2f 2 ‘65’s); C Boyd 0-3 (3f); C Connor 1-00; C Butler 0-2; M McClean 0-1; L Donnelly 0-1; F McKiernan 0-1
Referee: Ciaran McCloskey (Loughgiel)
