IHC Round Robin 3
St Brigid’s Cloughmills 3-11 Glenariffe Oisins 3-22
Glenarife Oisins qualified for the semi-finals of the Intermediate Hurling Championship when they travelled to Cloughmills on Friday evening and beat the Biddies by eleven points to keep their 100% record intact. A brilliant second quarter which saw them hit 3-6 without reply in last ten minutes of the opening half put the Glensmen in a strong position, and though they lost their way badly during the third quarter they had done enough to seal the win.
Man of the match Seanie McIntosh played a leading role for the Oisins, as indeed did Orrin O’Connor, but Cloughmills matched them in the early stages, and indeed had the home team taken the chances they created in those early stages then it could have been a different matter. Point from the O’Connor brothers Orrin and Brogan matched scores from Stephen Smith and Kevin O’Boyle for the home side before three in a row from McIntosh, and Oliver Kearney (2) started to open a gap.
Callum McKendry and Eoin Dobbin picked off points for the Biddies and they should have had a good few more at this stage had they have taken a succession of chances they created. The game was still close on twenty minutes but the visitors finished the first half strongly, McIntosh starting the run with a goal and a point inside a minute. Orrin O’Connor and McIntosh added point before Conor Patterson cut in from the left corner and fired a shot across the Cloughmills goalkeeper Christopher McKernan to help his side to a 2-13 to 0-06 half time lead.
When Orin O’Connor and Seanie Tosh got the first two points of the second half to stretch the gap to fifteen it all appeared to be plain sailing for the Oisins, but they lost their way badly, only scoring two more points during the next fifteen minutes, while Cloughmills started to claw their way back. Points from Liam Kearns and Eoin Dobbin were followed by a goal from Martin Dobbin from a penalty. Dobbin and McIntosh exchanged points before Corey Blair got his team’s second goal with a precise finish just below the crossbar.
The Oisins still had a good cushion, but they were struggling to reproduce the flowing hurling of the first half, but McInotsh came to his team’s aid when the pressure was on and fired in his team’s third goal on 51 minutes.
Cloughmills hit back inside a minute with their third goal, again from Corey Blair, but Glenariffe gained the upper hand again in the run-in, hitting five points without reply to seal a semi-final place and stretch the winning margin to eleven.
Glenariffe are top of the group and sure of a semi-final place, but if Carey beat them in their final game in two weeks’ time they would move above them on the head to head. Cloughmills have all their games played but if Glenariffe win that last game against Carey then the Biddies would move above the Faughs on the head to head.
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