ACHL Division 3
St. Brigid’s Cloughmills 2-12 Bredagh 1-13
Already crowned Division 3 champions, Bredagh arrived in Cloughymills hoping to end their campaign with a perfect 11 wins from 11 starts but they came up against a St. Brigid’s side who had a place in the promotion-relegation play-offs up for grabs.
CCC Chairman, Sean O’Reilly presented the division 3 cup to joint captain, Mark Patterson and Michael Woods before throw-in, the county official was in for a busy evening as he then left for Cushendun to perform the honours again should Carey Faughs defeat the Emmet’s to take the division 2 title.
Any notions that the visitors to Cloughmills held that this was going to be an easy evening were quickly dismissed as the ‘Biddies’ came racing out of the starting blocks to show their intent and Corey Blair got them off to a perfect start as he fired to the net in the second minute.
Before Bredagh had a chance to recover Blair was in action again. This time his shot was saved by Bredagh keeper, Aaron Maguire but Ryan Watson was quickest to react to the rebound and batted the sliothar home from close range.
Bredagh began to settle with point from PJ Lavery and Rory McCamphill before Christopher McKernan in the St. Brigid’s goals pulled off a good save as the visitors began to gain a foothold.
Eoin Dobbin, who was to have a big influence on the final outcome, replied with a point from a ‘65’ before his opposite number, Donal Hughes fired home for the visitors at the end of a hectic opening 7 minutes to close the gap to two.
A great long range point from Joseph Hanrahan left just one in it but Cloughmills replied from a similar effort from Eoin Dobbin and another from Ryan Watson to move three ahead.
Bredagh were trying to feed the ball into their inside forwards but too often they over hit their passes or they were being thwarted by a solid ‘Biddies’ rear guard who were getting out in front of their men to avert the danger..
Mel Lavery pulled one back for the Ravenhill Road side but St. Brigid’s were winning a lot of dirty ball and replied through Niall McNaughton and the excellent Eoin Dobbin 0-2 to keep their noses ahead.
Both sides added points in the period leading up to half time with Tiarnan Sheehan 0-2 on target for the visitors and the sweet striking Dobbin getting three, including a 70 meter free to leave the home side 2-8 to 1-7 ahead at the interval.
It was Bredagh who made the better start to the second half with Sheehan converting another free and Hughes adding another from play before the game deteriorated into a dogfight as the scores dried up for a time.
It would be 11 minutes before Cloughmills’ star man, Eoin Dobbin raised their first score of the second half but the excellent number 11 followed with two more to move his side five ahead with 21minutes gone.
Tiarnan Sheehan replied from a ‘65’ in the 24th minute but substitute, Liam Kerarns made quick reply with a point from play at the other end as the game became scrappy and foul ridden with referee, Fergus McAllister trying to keep a lid on matters.
The league champions made a push to salvage something from the contest in the closing stages with substitute Fintan McCollum and Sheehan closing the gap to two by the 29th minute but that was as close as they got.
A good win for Cloughmills who now look set to meet Carryduff in the play-offs with a place in division 2 next year up for grabs where the winners will be joined by tonight’s already crowned division 3 champions, Bredagh
St. Brigid’s: 1 Christopher McKernan, 2 Aaron McGuckian, 3 Sean McKendry, 4 Johnny Duffin, 5 Rian Dobbin, 6 Ruairi Laverty, 7 Geoffrey Og Laverty, 8 Kevin O’Boyle, 9 Stephen Smyth, 10 Reece Watt, 11 Eoin Dobbin, 12 Martin Dobbin, 13 Niall McNaughton, 14 Corey Blair, 15 Ryan Watson.
Subs: Liam Kearns for Reece Watt, James Doherty for Aaron McGuckian, James O’Boyle for Niall McNaughton, Ronnie Reid for Ryan Watson
Bredagh: 1 Aaron Maguire, 2 Tim Cunnane, 3 Lawrence Smyth, 4 PJ Lavery, 5 Evin Maguire, 6 Michael Woods, 7 Jake Carlin, 8 Joseph Hanrahan, 9 Mel Lavery, 10 Ciaran McMullan, 11 Donal Hughes, 12 Tiarnan Sheehan, 13 Liam Hogan, 14 Tiarnan Curran, 15 Rory McCamphill.
Subs: Dan Kinney for Tim Cunnane
Referee: Fergus McAlister
For more pics from this game cllick on the link below