ACFL Division 3
St Malachy’s 0-13 Laochra Loch Lao 2-7
Three late points, the last one arriving in the final seconds, from a well struck Charlie Vernon ‘45’ earned St Malachy’s a share of the points in a fiercely contested Division three encounter with Laochra Loch Lao on Sunday afternoon.
St Malachy’s who have a couple of wins to date took the lead early in the game with Dobbin, Smyth and Vernon giving employment to the scoreboard attendant in the opening phase but such swift getaway and accuracy in the finish was not set to continue and in fact concluded their total for the opening period.
As the Mals conspired to toss away openings to add scores Laochra Loch Lao gained in ascendancy and capitalising on the wayward tendencies of their host who took opportunity to capitalise on glaring defensive errors as they skipped away to gain a 2-04 to 0-03 advantage at the short whistle.
A getaway in the second period was much a requirement for St Malachy’s and in the event such was delivered when both Patrick Smyth and Carson raised white flags apiece within the opening few minutes.
Laochra Loch Lao were struggling to get their game together with the Mals and taking advantage and with Carson leading by example they had bridged the gap and taken the lead by the minimum.
Having struggled to get it together for much of the second period Laochra Loch Lao found a response as the last quarter got under way to add a couple of points to regain control and with time marching on the points looked destined for the visitors.
St. Malachy’s had other ideas however and Charlie Vernon took a firm grip of the baton in the latter stages as he led the comeback raising three white flags in succession in the last few minutes with the last from a ‘45’ arriving just as match official Eamon Hamill sounded the long blast with the sides all square at 0-13 to 2-07.
St Malachy’s: F MC Bride, C Connolly, S O’ Neill, P Carlisle, D Quinn. M Connolly, D Casey, A Dobbin (0-01), C Vernon (0-05), R Maneely (0-02), g Mc Manus, P Smyth (0-02), S Lynch.