ACHL Division Two
Saturday 23rd July
Cloney Gaels 5-16 Bredagh 0-20
Three second half goals, two from James O’Connell and one from Owen Neeson, all but ended Bredagh’s promotion hopes at Cloney on Saturday, as the Ahoghill men ran out winners by 11 points. A point ahead at the break after facing a still breeze Cloney took control in the final quarter to pull clear of their Down opponents and safely wrap up the points. The win actually pulls Cloney back into the league race, for if Carey were to lose to Creggan in their last game, and Cloney win against Tir na nÓg (and awarded the points when Creggan failed to field) then they will be champions.
With the breeze at their backs Bredagh started strongly and were three to the good after seven minutes as Sean Hughes, Matt McAreavey (from a sideline cut) and Ciaran McMullan all found the target. A minute later the visitors were behinds as PJ O’Connell opened his team’s account with a great individual goal and Owen Neeson won the puc-out and sent it back between the posts.
Of the remainder of the first half Bredagh held the upper hand as the points flowed freely from both sides, but trailing by two entering first half injury time the O’Connell brothers PJ and James produced another bit of magic as PJ floated a ball in around the Bredagh square and James flicked it past the advancing Bredagh goalkeeper to give his team a 2-5 to 0-10 lead at the interval.
Within five minutes of the restart the gap was out to six as James O’Connell picked off two points before firing home his second goal. Bredagh were up against it now, but they fought back well and had the gap back to two as Sean Hughes hit some great scores from frees and from play but they suffered a double blow in the 49th and 52nd minutes when the Cloney men brought their goal tally to five.
Owen Neeson got the fourth goal when he was left with the simply task of rolling the ball over the line after a pass from PJ to James had drawn the keeper and three minutes later James completed his hat trick with a deft finish.
That was the points wrapped up and hard though they tried Bredagh were never going to bridge the gap as the Cloney men kept picking off the points to win in the end by eleven.
