ACFL Division 2
Dunloy 1-6 Aldergrove 2-8
A goal after 30 seconds from Ronan Hanna set St. James’ Aldergrove on their way to a comfortable victory over Cuchullain’s in the ACFL division 2 in Dunloy last night. The visitors opened on the front foot, winning the throw in and Ryan Owens passed to Oisin Graham who found Hanna on the edge of the square.
The big striker turned his marker before firing past Conor McGilligan from close range to give the Crumlin men a lead they were never to lose.
Superbly set up at the back with Andy Flood controlling matters at centre half and Oisin Graham sweeping up affectively, St. James controlled the early exchanges as Gerard Mallon fired over from 40 meters and James Trowlen pointed a free to move his side 1-2 to 0-0 ahead after 8 minutes.
Conor Ferris finally got the home side off the mark with a point in the 10th minute but Ronan Hanna and James Trowlen both used the ‘mark’ to good effect to extend the Aldergrove lead to 6 before Deaglan Smith hit Dunloy’s second point with 17 minutes on the clock.
Smith was on target again to close the gap to four approaching half time but the final score of the half fell to St. James’ with Fearghal Hanna coming forward to send over a good point to leave his side 1-5 to 0-3 ahead at the short whistle.
The visitors had been much the better side in the opening half, fast in the transition from defence to attack while Dunloy were slow and laboured in their build up play and were turned over time after time and they range the changes at half time in an effort to change matters.
They introduced Sean Scullion and Anthony Dornan and started to enjoy more possession as they began to take the game to the opposition but the Aldergrove defence remained difficult to penetrate, getting in timely blocks and closing down their opponents.
Still it appeared to be swing in favour of the Pearse park men when Deaglan Smith pointed a 10th minute free and Shane Dooey added another from play to leave just a goal between the sides with 12 minutes of the second half gone but again St. James found a response.
Another lightning break from defence involving several players in the build-up found Conor Morris in acres of space to the right of goal and he drilled his shot low to the right hand corner of McGilligan’s goal to move his side six in front.
McMahon for Dunloy and Hanna, from another mark, exchanged points before substitutes Brian McQuillan and Ryan McCarthy extended the visitors lead to 8 and it looked done and dusted at this stage but the Cuchullain’s were still battling.
They were handed a lifeline when Shane Dooey drilled a close range free to the net as the visitors defence sleep walked for the only time in the game but it came too late to effect the outcome with Ray Matthew’s full-time whistle bring proceeding to a halt and the points on their way up to Crumlin.
Dunloy: 1 Conor McGilligan, 2 Seanna Martin Ryan, 3 Karl O’Kane, 4 Cathair McCloskey, 5 Anton McGrath, 6 Conor Kinsella, 7 Oran Quinn, 8 Kevin McQuillan, 9 Eoin Gillan, 10 Christopher McMahon, 11 Deaglan Smith, 12 Eoin McFerran, 13 Barry McCloskey, 14 Shane Dooey, 15 Tom McFerran. Subs: Sean Scullion, Anthony Dornan, Daithi McGuigan, Peter McQuillan
Aldergrove: 1. Shane O’Neill 2. David Aiken 3. Chris Browning 4. Eoin Gough 5. Declan Gough 6. Andy Flood 7. Fearghal Hanna 8. Ryan Owens 9. Gerald Mallon 10. James Trowlen 11. Conor Morris 12. Conor Browning 13. Ronan Hanna 14. Stephen McCullagh 15. Oisin Graham. Subs: Cory Foggarty, Sean Fay, Logan Fleming, Ryan McCarthy, Brian McQuillan
Referee: Ray Matthews (Rossa)
