O’Neill’s ACFL Division One
St Enda’s 0-07-0-08 Lámh Dhearg
Kevin Herron reports from Hightown
Lámh Dhearg claimed their first win of the league campaign with a narrow and hard-fought victory over St Enda’s at Hightown on Wednesday evening.
The visitors edged ahead through a converted Adam Murray free inside of two minutes, but Stephen O’Connor floated over from the same scenario to restore parity.
Declan Smyth curled over a fine score after taking a lay-off from Terry McCrudden- though Sean Murray popped over from close range on the midway point of the opening half.
A drag down on Conor Murray gave namesake Adam the chance to double his account and he obliged.
The Red hands doubled their lead before the break, through a fantastic Ciaran Boyd effort that swung between the posts to give his side a 0-04-0-02 advantage at the interval.
Three-unanswered points at the beginning of the second period saw Lámh Dhearg in control.
Adam Murray dropped a shot over after good work from Ben Rice out of defence. Conor Murray was then brought to ground and his quickly taken free rose over the bar.
The hosts almost claimed the opening goal on 37 minutes when Cormac Morgan bore down and shot underneath Gerard Smyth, only for Terry McCrudden to hook the ball off the line.
Defence then turned to attack, and Conor Murray made it successive scores and opened up a 0-07-0-02 lead.
St Enda’s were almost half an hour without a score before Cormac Morgan popped over and Ronan Kalla followed suit a few minutes later.
A converted free from Fionn Nagle whipped out the Lámhs second half advantage and it was all to play for in the final 12 minutes.
Tensions ramped up and on the 52nd minute both sides were reduced to a 14-men when an off the ball incident saw referee Paul Burns show red-cards to Tomas Gilmour and Fionn Mervyn.
The bare minimum separated the sides thanks a converted Sean Murray free, but the hosts were unable to restore parity despite going on all-out attack in the closing stages.
Lámh Dhearg did well to soak up the pressure and stretched the lead in injury time after Ben Rice burst forward from defence and slipped a pass to Adam Murray- who steered a shot over.
Ronan Kalla responded almost instantly to make it a single-point game once again, however they were unable to force a share of the spoils as Lámh Dhearg held out for their first win of the season at the fifth time of asking.
St Enda’s: S Nagle, K Jennings, D McNulty, E O’Hare, R O’Neill, J McAuley, N Heatley, S Murray (0-02, 0-01f), P Curran, R Kalla (0-02), T Gilmour, C Morgan (0-01), S McBride, S O’Connor (0-01), F Nagle (0-01).
Lámh Dhearg: G Smyth, D Martin, M McGarry, F Mervyn, D Smyth (0-01), B Rice, R Murray, S McManus, C Boyd (0-01), N McGarry, T McCrudden, R Diamond, A Murray (0-04, 0-02f), C Murray (0-02, 0-01f), M Finnegan. Subs: C Fegan for R Diamond (47), P Larkin for N McGarry (59), A McAufield for C Boyd (59), E Campbell for B Rice (60+2).
Referee: Paul Burns (St Comgalls)