Antrim Hurling League – Division 1
Dunloy 1-16 Cushendall 0-14
Dunloy scored a five point win over Cushendall in Sunday’s Antrim division 1 League game at Pearse Park, winning in the end by 1-16 to 0-14.
With teams short their county players due to Antrim’s participation in the Leinster Hurling Championship, the standard was understandably a bit below the usual fare served up, it was nonetheless competitive, with the players on show determined to make their mark and catch the eye of the respective management.
Cushendall opened with points from Alex Delargy and Christy McNaughton, but Dunloy came back strongly with points from Barry Scott, Anton McGrath and Kevin Molloy before centre forward Gabriel McTaggart got the first goal of the game on ten minutes.
The goal gave the Cuchullains control of the game and scoring bursts from Paul Shiels, Gabriel McTaggart and Barry Scott between the 15th and 20th minutes, and again from Shiels (2) and Eamon Smyth nearing half time saw the home side go in at the break with a 1-10 to 0-6 lead.
Nicky McKeague increased the Dunloy lead to eight just after the restart, but two points from Dominic Delargy and one from Christy McNaughton cut the gap back to five by the 36th minute. The visiting fans must have felt their team were still in with a great chance of closing the gap, but Dunloy were able to control game with their possession style of play. On a couple of occasion Cushendall closed the gap to within four points, but Dunloy always had a response and the dictated the play to win by five in the end.
DUNLOY
Eoin Richmond, Cahir McCloskey, Kevin McKeague, Oran Quinn, Eamon Smyth, Conor Kinsela, Ciaran McQuillan, Kevin Molloy, Paul Shields, Barry Scott, Gabriel McTaggart, Ronan Molloy, Ciaran Elliott, Anton McGrath, Nicky McKeague
Subs – Chrissy McMahon; Aodhan McGarry; Tom McFerran; Conal Kelly
CUSHENDALL
Conor McAlister, Cillain McNaughton, Stephen Walsh, Liam Gillan, Aidan McNaughton, Fred McCurry, Padraig McKillop, Alex Delargy, Alex Delargy, Ryan McCambridge, Ronan McAteer, Paddy McGill, Sean McAfee, Ed McQuillan, Dominic Delargy, Christy McNaughton
Subs – Joseph McLaughlin, Emmet Laverty, Joseph McNaughton
