Antrim Hurling League – Division 3

Glenravel 1-10  Cloughmills 1-17

Cloughmills retained joint top position in Division 3 with a seven point victory over neighbours Con Magees who now sit third in the table. With hardly a breath of wind in Fr Maginn Park St Brigids effectively won the game with a very solid first quarter performance which saw them leading by six points and by the end of the half they had stretched that to a seven point lead. With honours even in the second half that seven point gap is what separated the teams at the end. 

Throughout the first half Glenravel really struggled to retain possession from their own puc-outs and that yielded endless ball to St Brigid’s who certainly put it to good use. Eoin Dobbin opened the scoring after one minute with a free and indeed he proved deadly all evening going to score 1-10 of Cloughmills total, nine of which were from frees. An impressive contribution from a very impressive hurler. Reece Watt and Rian Dobbin added to the scoreboard before Declan Traynor pointed the home side’s first score after eight minutes. But Cloughmills were really dominant on the puc-outs and would go on to score four more points without reply to lead 0-07 to 0-01 and only thirteen minutes gone on the clock. Cormac McKeown put over two frees in succession for the home side but back came St Brigid’s with three frees, all from Eoin Dobbin to leave the half time score 0-10 to 0-03 in favour of a very dominant Cloughmills side. 

Whatever was said in the Glenravel changing rooms at half time certainly worked as the home side came out revitalised for the second period. Cormac McKeown reduced the gap to six points but then Cloughmills hit a purple patch scoring 1-02 in a three minute period half way through the half. Eoin Dobbin providing the goal that really sealed the game for them. In the final fifteen minutes Con Magees came back with 1-02 all from the stick of Sean McKay and with five minutes normal time left when Cormac McKeown reduced the gap to five points and the home side on the rise a shock looked possible. However Cloughmills held their nerve and went on to score the final two points of the game and regain the seven point advantage they had at half time, and indeed that is how the game ended. 

Both sides travel this weekend with Cloughmills heading to Dreen to take on Rasharkin whilst Con Magees have a tough encounter over in Armoy against Glen Rovers.