ACFL Division 3
Ardoyne 1-13 Eire Og 1-8
Ardoyne and Eire Og met in a very entertaining Division 3 football league game at Fennell Park on Sunday afternoon. The first half was a very close affair with both teams enjoying periods of superiority, but it was the Northender’s who took the points after a dominant second half performance.
Ardoyne were first out of the blocks with Gary McKernan slotting over a point after 2 minutes followed by a second from Padraig McGreevy shortly afterwards. Fiontan Lagan was proving a thorn in the side of the Eire Og defence as the game unfolded, but they soon found their confidence and dominated the middle third of the first half. They could have gone ahead following a strong run through the Ardoyne defence, only to be thwarted by an in-form Tiernan Hughes in the Ardoyne nets.
It was only a matter of time before the points began to arrive for Eire Og with both Lorcan McIlroy and Stiofan Gallen knocking over two points apiece to take a one point lead with 20 minutes gone. It was nip and tuck as the first half moved into the final stages. Hughes kicked over a 45, followed by a point kicked from a difficult angle by Corrigan.
Eire Og again got a head of steam and exerted increasing pressure on the Ardoyne defence that eventually led to a penalty, duly converted by Gallan into the Ardoyne net. Just as it looked that Eire Og were taking the initiative, Ardoyne picked up the pace with a further 4 points in the closing minutes of the first half to leave one point between the sides at the short whistle..
Half-Time: Ciceam Ard Eoin 0-08 Eire Og 1-04
The second half told a different story as Ardoyne took the upper hand from the whistle with 4 points from play before McIlroy slotted over a free to leave 5 points between the sides at the end of the third quarter.
Ardoyne went further ahead as a high tackle on James McAuley resulted in McGreevy sending over another free. Eire Og continued to battle, and were never that far away from the Ardoyne men. As the final whistle was drawing near, Cormac Barnes in the Ardoyne attack was left frustrated when a great run through the Eire Og defence rebounded off the post. This was not to be Eire Og’s day and a resulting penalty from the rebound saw the game come to a conclusion with a 5 point win for Ardoyne.
Referee: Sean Toal
Ciceam Ard Eoin: Tiernan Hughes (0-2, 2f), Cormac Curran, Micheál McGreevy, Conor Magee, Daniel Moore (0-1), Pearse Marley, James Og McAuley (0-2), Gary McKernan (0-1), Joe Gibson, Ethan Magill, Kealan McCallan, Eoghan Corrigan (1-4), Padraig McGreevy (0-3, 1f), Fiontan Lagan, Cormac Barnes, Odhran Mullan, Aodhán Quigg, Finnen Wall O’Brien, Diarmuid Martin
Eire Og: Simon Harney, Ciarán Rice, Paddy Loughran, Barry McDaid, Karl McKenna, Conor McKenna, Jarlath Devlin, Conor Erskine, Conall Smyth, Christopher Carberry, Ronan Donnelly, Stephen Erskine (0-2), Lorcan McIlroy (0-3, 2f), Mark Graham, Stiofan Gallan (1-3,1f)
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