Antrim Football League Division 1

Glenravel 2-10  Cargan 2-11

Cargin maintained their unbeaten start to the 2025 Div1 campaign but Con Magees made them fight every inch of the way with a strong finish in the closing ten minutes and had they taken one of the two by 2-pointer chances in added time they may well have returned victors. Both teams were reduced to fourteen men for two separate incidents in the second half. The home side can feel slightly aggrieved at what looked like an inocuous enough tackle resulting in one of their defenders being sent to the line early.  In the end Cargin just held on and bagged the points.

The Toome side started well and were three points to the good inside the opening five minutes as  Conhuir Johnson and a 2-pointer after Pat Shivers gave them the ideal start. Fergus Donaghy and Aiden O’Donnell reduced the gap to the minimum but Cargin were on the rampage at this stage and but for fine goal keeping from Johnny Fyfe they would surely have raised one or two green flags. The walls of Jericho did eventually tumble for the home side when Michael McCann used all his guile to find space in front of goal and laid on a short pass to  Sean O’Neill who wasn’t going to miss from point blank range. Benen Kelly followed up one minute later and it was starting to look ominous for Glenravel who now trailed 1-04 to 0-02. However from the kickout Con Magees moved the ball intricately through the hands which ended up in Fergus Donaghy goaling from close range and when Aiden O’Donnell followed with a 2-pointer suddenly the sides were level. The final ten minutes of the first half saw the Toome men regain a little control with frees from Conhuir Johnson and David Johnson preceded by a point from Pat Shivers as the home side managed a solitary score from an Aiden O’Donnell free. So both sides withdrew to the changing rooms at half time with Cargin ahead 1-07 to 1-05.

The second half became a game of two quarters with Cargin dominating the third quarter and Glenravel totally in charge in the final run in. Within the opening ten minutes of the half Cargin had tagged on three points from Sean O’Neill, Benen Kelly and Pat Shivers  as well as a goal from Conhuir Johnson and at that stage, ahead 2-10 to 1-05, they must have thought they were cruising to victory. Joe Martin for Con Magees and a Pat Shivers free for Toome maintained that eight point gap with as many minutes left on the clock. However two 2-pointers form Aiden O’Donnell and Niall Hynds halved that deficit and when David Higgins found Declan Traynor his rocket to the net reduced the gap to a single point. This is the fourth consecutive game across both codes that Traynor has found the net. Clearly the imminent prospect of wedding bells is working well for Deccy.  As we entered added time, Glenravel had the lion’s share of possession and at least two good chances of 2-point frees went a begging as they tried in vain to eke out a victory. It wasn’t to be in the end though and the match points headed towards the River Bann. 

TO SEE MORE OF DYLAN’S PICS FROM THIS GAME CLICK ON THE LIN BELOW

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