Creggan 1-23 Glenravel 1-17
Creggan secured victory in this Andersonstown SC Intermediate Hurling Championship with six points to spare over rivals Glenravel but they will look back on this match with some concerns having led by fourteen points at half time albeit with the aid of strong breeze blowing straight down the pitch which was to their advantage in the first half. Creggan opened very strongly and were 1-06 to 0-00 ahead in the opening eight minutes. They would go on to dominate the first half but Glenravel really came at them in the second period and in the end the loughsiders would have welcomed referee Patrick Tumelty’s final whistle. Over the hour Creggan had more strength in depth and that was the real difference between the teams. This was epitomised by the fact that the home side had ten different scorers over the hour whilst the visitors could only manage half that number.
As previously mentioned Creggan dominated the opening exchanges with 1-06 on the scoreboard with just eight minutes played. The goal coming from Conor McCann at full forward whilst Sean Duffin at midfield and Morgan Nelson on the half forward line contributing their other scores. Sean McKy (0-02) and Cormac McKeown got Glenravel off the mark but back came Creggan with scores from Ruari McCann, Morgan Nelson, Kevin Rice and Conor McCann once more to really stretch the home team’s advantage. McKay and McKeown did get two more points before half time but Liam McCann, berthed at half back got the first period’s final score and Creggan retired to the changing rooms in what looked like an unassailable lead of 1-16 to 0-05. Remarkably, of the twenty two scores of that first half, only one came from a placed ball, a sixty five from Conor McCann.
With only two minutes of the second period on the clock Creggan’s Morgan Nelson stretched Creggan further ahead and things looked ominous for Glenravel. Points from Odhran Faloona and Sean McKay sought to get Glenravel back into the game but these were cancelled by a brace of local scores from Liam and Conor McCann so with ten minutes of the half gone Creggan led 1-19 to 0-07. However the following twenty minutes belonged totally to the visitors who were beginning to make good use of wind advantage. Over that period they would record 1-09; the goal coming from Sean McKay with points from Conleth O’Loan (0-04) and Cormac McKeown (0-05) during which time the home side could only manage three points. With only a couple of minutes of normal time remaining Creggan’s lead had been reduced to 1-21 to 1-16 and the crowd were wondering what if we get a Glenravel goal? It wasn’t to be though and in the end Creggan ran out victors on a 1-23 to 1-17 scoreline and fully deserved that victory based mostly on their first half performance.
