Antrim GAA Bathshack SHC Div 1
St. Enda’s v Loughgiel – Sunday 11th August 2024
St. Enda’s 0-17 Loughgiel 2-21
Match report and photos from Michael Corcoran in Páirc Phádraig Mhic Laibheartaigh
Sitting on the lee side of Collinward Hill, St. Enda’s was enjoying a spell of summer weather for Sunday’s opening game in Group 1 of the Antrim GAA Bathshack Senior Hurling Championship. Early arrivals would be treated to an U12 match between St. Enda’s and Loughgiel. The nimble footed participants would betray to the sandy loam the pounding Páirc Phádraig Mhic Laibheartaigh would receive over the next sixty minutes or thereabouts.
Regardless of what might have been said in recent days regarding the operation of the draw, both sides had come fully committed to setting out their championship stall. St. Enda’s supporters would enjoy the nip and tuck of the first half and Loughgiel supporters were entertained with an almost equal number of points and two goals to nourish the talk on the journey home.
Match referee, Colum Cunning from Dunloy, would oblige the gathering ‘snappers’ and roll the sliotar towards a peaking Slemish Mountain in the distance, in case the throw-in would offer up an early Pulitzer shot of eager action. St. Enda’s won today’s toss and opted to play away from the clubhouse, towards the cooling breeze.
No sooner had Cunning started his timer, when St. Enda’s Eddie O’Conner drifted the first attempt to score, wide of the mark. Loughgiel’s puck out would work its way to James McNaughton and pushing up beyond his half back position, Damon McMullan collected the pass and pointed to have the Shamrocks up and running.
Loughgiel’s Declan McCloskey had an opportunity to make it two rapid points for the Shamrocks but the sliotar found the upright and St. Enda’s recycled the ball so that Niall O’Connor could bring the scores to one apiece.
St. Enda’s would have to sit out the next three points from Loughgiel as Paul Boyle hit a soaring sixty-five metre ball to split the uprights, a foul on Dan McCloskey had James McNaughton opening up his tally and Paul Boyle from a piece of nifty clearing from Tiernan Coyle, much to the approval of the Shamrock supporters lined up on the Baile Bocht hillside.
When St. Enda’s Philip Curran carved his sideline ball with loft, Luke O’Connor made good of the chance to get the Enda’s back in the game with a safe point.
Two points separated the sides but seven minutes in, Damon McMullan offloaded to a wide Tiernan Coyle. Coyle planted the sliotar onto Rian McMullan for Loughgiel’s fifth point to St. Enda’s two.
As the game ebbed and flowed, Loughgiel would sit out the next two points from St. Enda’s, as Cunning awarded two consecutive frees, fouls on Cormac Jennings and Eoin Conlon. And it could have been three at eleven minutes as Cormac Jennings drew another foul. Jennings’ ball would soar high and faded in the wind to become a dangerous dropping ball, but Loughgiel’s defence swept it away to the relief of supporters.
Loughgiel’s Christy McGarry was on the move and entered the danger zone on the thirteen metre line when Cunning spotted a foul that stopped McGarry on his tracks. McNaughton stepped up and dropped that over the bar to put only two points between the sides.
St. Enda’s were building a move into Loughgiel’s half, when Declan McCloskey won a loose ball. McCloskey used the support of Coyle, finding McMullan once again for a fine point.
St. Enda’s were sharp and able to punish a pass that wasn’t perfect and that was ably demonstrated by Luke O’Connor to close the gap to two before McNaughton had his first point from play, twenty minutes into the first half. The large LCD scoreboard, tucked into the corner of the pitch announced St. Enda’s 0-05 Loughgiel 0-08.
The next passage of play would witness one point out of six attempts as both Loughgiel’s Damon McMullan and Shan McGrath shot wide of the mark, both initiated from great catches from Boyle and McGrath himself. St. Enda’s marksman, Cormac Jennings, pulled a free wide and Niall O’Connor wasn’t able to make the advantage work after Cunning’s hand went up for a foul on Jennings. It would be twenty-two minutes in, before the scoreboard purred into action as a St. Enda’s attack deep in Shamrock territory was ground down and collected by Tiernan Coyle, offloaded to Boyle and a calling Dan McCloskey brought Loughgiel to 0-09.
St. Enda’s would close the gap once again, as Joe Maskey dragged a running sliotar away from an outstretched Paul Boyle and was rewarded with a fine point for determination. St. Enda’s Dan Lowry kept the scoreboard going once more with his point two minutes short of the break and before Loughgiel’s James McNaughton dropped the sliotar over the bar from a free that resulted in two yellow cards for St. Enda’s Brendan Cormican on Paul Boyle and Ruairí Donaghy for off the ball reaction.
Cunning was happy to blow at almost thirty on the watch with only three points the difference, St. Enda’s 0-07 Loughgiel 0-10.
You could have been forgiven to imagine that the wind would give you a four-point advantage, so on commencement of the second half, there was everything for St. Enda’s to play for but it would be Loughgiel’s Paul Boyle who would stamp his mid field presence off the throw-in and gaining possession, offered the sliotar to Dan McCloskey who in turn spotted Eoin McGarry in space. McGarry wasn’t getting his point easily and St. Enda’s Ronan Eager closed in on McGarry forcing him to improvise room to swing for his point.
Christy McGarry inched the Shamrocks up the scoreboard with another point before St. Enda’s Niall O’Connor dropped in a dangerous diving sliotar to Loughgiel’s keeper, Cormac McFadden. The sliotar found a safe hand in McFadden despite an infringement that had Cunning blow for McFadden’s foul.
A Shamrock’s ‘throw ball’ had St. Enda’s back in the game, whenever Cormac Jennings ploughed the sliotar into the breeze and over Loughgiel’s bar. St. Enda’s were busy trying to build momentum to make moves into their scoring range but with just six minutes into the second half, a busy James McNaughton rewarded the Shamrock supporters with the first goal of the game. Christy McGarry quickly followed that up with his point from the right side of the pitch.
St. Enda’s Luke O’Connor attempted a point from just beyond the forty-five metre line but it started wide and stayed wide with the breeze. Niall O’Connor kept the Enda’s from going dormant with a simple turn over in mid field from a Loughgiel puck out and Cormac Jennings made use of a free from all of seventy metres into the breeze, much to the cheers from St. Enda’s supporters.
Loughgiel mid fielder, Cahal Hargan, found possession of the sliotar at around eleven minutes in the second half and spotted Shan McGrath moving into space. McGrath successfully took control of the sliotar and pointed to move the Shamrocks on by a goal and four points the difference.
But Cormac Jennings would be back in action quickly for the Enda’s. Jennings caught the sliotar and went for a solo run to close the distance. Draped in red jerseys, Jennings had to offload but quickly found the sliotar coming back into his hand and over Loughgiel’s bar it sailed to make that a goal and three points the difference.
Despite St. Enda’s breaking down incoming wide balls for a large portion of the game, Shan McGrath found a way around and a running McNaughton was his target for the offload. McNaughton delivered a rasping sliotar to the back of Martin Curran’s net for his second goal of the match.
Midway through the second half, calls for a sideline ball to St. Enda’s and equal shouts of ‘the player was out not the ball’, Rian McMullan was happy to make his point out of the cauldron of noise. With St. Enda’s 0-11 to Loughgiel’s 2-15, this felt like a stage in the game where St. Enda’s might drift away, but substitute Cian O’Connor floated the ball over the bar from a well won engagement.
St. Enda’s continued to battle relentlessly and tracked Loughgiel almost point for point with an acute angle score from Eoin Conlon from the right side towards the clubhouse. Conlon would reappear in Cunning’s note book, but not for a score. A heavy hit that lifted James McNaughton off his feet found a yellow card being flashed high in the air. McNaughton would shake the sandy soil off his stick and reaped some satisfaction from dropping it over St. Enda’s bar.
The Glengormley side would close out the scoring action with a fine point from Conlon after an intense ruck won by the Enda’s near the Loughgiel dugout before the Shamrocks worked up a tasty move, Rian McMullan to Christy McGarry, back to McMullan and forward into Conor O’Mullan. An Outstretched O’Mullan could only pull on the sliotar but it was travelling hard enough to warrant Curran going to ground to smother the attempt on goal.
With thirty-three minutes on Cunning’s watch, Paul Boyle’s sideline brought the long whistle to close this afternoon’s game St. Enda’s 0-17 Loughgiel 2-21.
St. Enda’s Starting Panel:
Martin Curran, Dara McGuire, Malachi McGibbon, Ronan Eager, Eoin Conlon, Ruairi Diamond, Joe Maskey, Brendan Cormican, Niall O’Connor, Luke O’Connor, Cormac Jennings, Philip Curran, Ruairí Donaghy, Eddie O’Connor, Dan Lowry
Scorers:
Eoin Conlon 0-02, Joe Maskey 0-01, Niall O’Connor 0-03, Luke O’Connor 0-02, Cormac Jennings 0-08 (6f), Dan Lowry 0-01
Loughgiel Starting Panel:
Cormac McFadden, Tiernan Coyle, Rory McCloskey, Caolan Blair, Damon McMullan, Declan McCloskey, Ruairi McCormick, Paul Boyle, Cahal Hargan, Daniel McCloskey, Darragh Patterson, Christy McGarry, Rian McMullan, Shan McGrath, James McNaughton
Scorers:
Damon McMullan 0-01, Declan McCloskey 0-01, Ruairi McCormick 0-01, Paul Boyle 0-02, Daniel McCloskey 0-01, Christy McGarry 0-01, Rian McMullan 0-04, Shan McGrath 0-02, James McNaughton 2-07 (5f), Eoin McGarry 0-01
Photos from Sunday’s game can be found in the photo album by clicking on the link here:
https://myalbum.com/album/4UJQtLxNCMfx8T/?invite=cad988f5-b1f0-4002-898e-54433e17b9ab
Follow Michael G Corcoran @keep_clickin on X (formerly Twitter) for match Gifs when available.
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