ACHL Division 3
St. Brigid’s 1-14 Glen Rovers 2-10
In a rematch of last year’s junior championship final, St. Brigid’s Cloughmills held on to win by the finest of margins against old rivals Glen Rovers in Armoy on Sunday to record their second win of the season.
Playing with the wind at their backs in the first half, Odhran McCurdy opened the scoring for the Cloughmills men with a fine long range effort but Armoy replied with a well taken score from Emmet O’Hara to tie the game.
Cloughmills started to find their rhythm and with the strong wind in their favour they hit a purple patch, scoring 1.08 without reply, the major coming from James Doherty.
However Armoy recovered well, scoring 1.02 in quick succession, their goal coming from Emmet O’Hara to bring themselves back into contention. Cloughmills responded with two points from Callum McKendry to leave the score 1.11 to 1.03 in favour of Cloughmills at the interval.
After the restart and with the wind now in their favour Armoy immediately began to eat into the Cloughmills lead with scores from Turlough McBride and Trevor Linton to leave six between the sides.
The home side were then awarded a penalty after Colin Liordan was fouled inside the small rectangle but Emmet O’Hara’s well struck shot sailed over.
The visitors to the Glen were coming under more and more pressure but Eoin Dobbin relieved the pressure with a point at the other end.
Both teams were finding it difficult to get to grips with the worsening conditions as the rain poured down but Armoy continued to chip into the Biddies lead and only 4 points separated the sides with 5 minutes remaining. Glen Rovers continued to press and Kieran McToal got on the end of a ball across the square to send it to the Cloughmills net to leave it a 1 point game. Armoy pushed hard for an equaliser in the dying minutes but the Cloughmills defence held out to secure the win.