O Neill’s ACFL Division One
St Ergnats Moneyglass 3:13 v St. Marys Ahoghill 2:18
Ahoghill came away from Marion Hill with the points on this occasion in what was a highly anticipated encounter between these neighbours. A last-ditch penalty in injury time converted well by Dermot McErlain still wasn’t enough to get that much craved second win for the men in blue.
It was the home side who were first off the mark with a goal when Connlaodh McCann latched onto a through ball in the opening few minutes to settle any pre match nerves and put his side three ahead. Ahoghill kept their composure however and replied instantly with a brace of points to keep the minimum between the teams.
The Clooney men were more than up for this one and it was James O Connell who began to orchestrate things up front for Chris Mc Glone’ side linking well with his midfield and converting some fine individual efforts with their goal coming from Paul Crossey in the 21st minute.
The home side however were giving as good as they got and it was their captain Colm Duffin who took lead and kept the scoreboard ticking with a converted free after 17 minutes.
Moneyglass pressed the resulting kick out and won possession through a well fielded ball by Dermot McErlain who guided the pass through for Connor O Kane who drove at the heart of the Ahoghill defence and found the net to take a two point lead.
There was never much between the sides throughout the first half but Moneyglass finished the stronger and they continued to trade scores through Conor O Kane and a brace each from Aidan McErlain and Kevin McCann for the home side and the O Connell’s for the visitors to leave it 2-7 to 1-7 at the break.
The second half started as bright as the first, but it was the visitors who enjoyed the majority of the possession in the first 10 and notched 3 unanswered scores through Ronan Graham and James O’Connell to leave it all square.
Moneyglass struggled at times to win possession from their own kick outs and the Clooney men capitalised by striking the net through Donal Graham and taking a 2-10 to 2-7 lead.
Benny Marron and his management team wouldn’t have been happy with the 6 point swing and the introduction of Sean Boyd for Conor Boyd after 44 minutes gave them a different outlet and injected a bit of pace to their attack and it wasn’t long before the home side began to link up in the forward line and sent over scores from Dermot McErlain, and 2 converted frees from Colm Duffin.
Boyd struck the upright with a well worked combination with Connlaodh Mc Cann but split the post minutes later to make it a tied game at 2-12 apiece. The visitors took control in the final stages through James O Connell who proved a handful all evening for the Ergnat’s defence and added 4 more to his personally tally which was to be the visitors last.
It was too little too late for the blues at this stage but they were awarded a penalty in injury time which was converted by Dermot McErlain which was to be the last play of the game.
St Ergnats: D Mc Erlain, M Mullen D Scullin J Mc Cormick K Mc Cann (0-2) P Duffin F Duffin S Duffin D Mc Erlain (1-1) C O Kane (1-2) C Mc Cann (1-2) C. Boyd A Mc Erlain (0-2) J Mc Meel C Duffin (0-3) Subs: S. Boyd (0-1) for C. Boyd T Cassidy for J Mc Cormick M Mc Laughlin for F Duffin R Gribben for D Mc Erlain.
Ahoghill: 1 Cahair O’Kane, 2 Seamus McKeever, 3 Diarmaid Graham, 4 James Magee, 5 Patrick Dougan, 6 Bernard Graham, 7 Fionnbar O’Neill, 8 Thomas McGlone, 9 Ronan Graham, 10 Eamonn Brady, 11 Conor Paul Crossey, 12 Daniel O’Neill, 13 Colla McDonnell, 14 Neil O’Connell, 15 James O’Connell
Referee: Kevin Parke (St. Enda’s)
