Castle survive late scare as the down the ‘Dall

Antrim Minor Hurling League – Division 1

Ballycastle 3-13 Cushendall 3-10

When Cushendall scored the first four points of Sunday’s Minor Hurling league game in Ballycastle the smart money would have been on the boys in maroon, especially with them putting up a massive score in the Darragh Cup just two nights earlier.

However when Ballycastle got their first score in the 9^th minute things began to happen and they turned the game around, pushing on to lead by 2-08 to 0-6 at half time. They held the upper hand in the second half and were and were twelve points head with just three minutes to go, but despite a late rally from the Ruairis, which brought three goals in as many minutes, the Town held on to win by three in the end.

Points from Fiontan Bradley (2), Shane McQuillan and Thomas McLaughlin had Cushendall 0-4 to 0-0 ahead after eight minutes, but once Caydan Crawford got Balycastle’s first score on nine minutes they kicked into gear and a Conor Donnelly goal had them level two minutes later. Further score came from Donnelly, Crawford and McLean at they opened up a 1-7 to 0-4 lead after twenty minutes.

The visitors closed the gap with points from Bradley McLaughlin, but Ballycastle finished the first half strongly and an injury time goal from Niall McClean had them 2-8 to 0-6 in front at the interval.

A Conor Donnelly point stretched the Ballycastle lead to nine just after the restart but Cushendall then had a good spell, hitting three of the next four points and when the Town pushed on to open a 3-13 to 0-10 lead after 23 minutes, the third goal coming from Conor Mooney, it appeared to be all plain sailing

It didn’t turn out that way however as the home fans had a few anxious minutes to endure near the end as Cushendall hit three late goals, two of them from play by Daire Higgins and one from a free by Thomas McLaughlin to leave just three between them at the end.