ACFL Division 3
Ciceam Ard Eoin 2-7 Uí Dhonaill 2-14
A sun drenched Fennell Park witnessed a relatively tame first half in which Ciceam Ard Eoin held the upper hand. McGreevy opened the scoring for Ardoyne after 5 minutes when he slotted over a free. Walsh replied for O’Donnell’s shortly afterwards with a point from play. While O’Ds pressed the Ardoyne defence they were let down by a series of chances dropping short or into the hands of the Ardoyne keeper.
Corrigan lifted the tempo with a well-placed shot into the corner of the O’Ds net. Any thoughts of Ardoyne pushing ahead were thwarted by three successive points from O’Donnell’s to leave the sides level with 10 minutes left of the opening half.
A dangerous attack from O’Ds looked set to produce the second goal of the game, only to see Odhran Mullan save off the line. The resulting race up the field saw Barnes somehow rise to collect a ball that seemed to be heading high and wide. A pass into Corrigan along the by-line resulted in a further goal for Ardoyne.
Ardoyne were by now dominating the game and a further point from McAuley left them 4 points ahead and looking comfortable at half-time
Half-Time Score: Ciceam Ard Eoin 2-03 Uí Dhonaill 0-05
Ardoyne did themselves no favours in the opening minutes of the second half as two technical fouls led to the ball being moved upfield with McKissock taking full advantage and slotting over two soft points for O’Donnell’s. These avoidable mistakes gave a new lease of life to O’Donnell’s with McKissock slotting home a further goal and a point over the next 10 minutes.
O’Donnell’s shifted into a different gear as the game approached the mid-point of the second half and the scores kept coming for them. Five points were followed by a goal from McKernan that put the game out of the reach for the home side.
The final 5 minutes were exciting for the supporters as Ardoyne kept plugging away in an attempt to get back on track but it was too late, and the surge in the previous 15 minutes that saw O’Ds score 2-08 to Ardoyne’s 0-02 was too much of a mountain to climb.
Ciceam Ard Eoin: Tiernan Hughes, Ethan Magill, Conor Magee, Odhran Mullan, Daniel Moore, Pearse Marley, James Og McAuley (0-02,1f), Joe Gibson, Gary McKernan, Odhran McKee, Kealan McCallan, Eoghan Corrigan (2-03, 1f), Padraig McGreevy (0-02,1f), Fiontan Lagan, Cormac Barnes, Finnen Wall O’Brien, Ciaran O’Neill, Brendan Mailey, Diarmuid Martin
CLG Uí Dhonaill: Conor Murphy, Matthew Sloan, Barra Corr, James Walsh, Gerard McKernan (1-0), Jonathan McKenna(0-02), Sean Lavery, Conall Carville, Pearse Rice (0-03,1f), Padraig McKissock (1-05, 1pen, 5f), Ciaran McKissock, Patrick Golden, Jason Dullaghan, Liam McCaffrey, Kevin Kennedy, Stephen Seawright (0-01), Cáilean Walsh (0-03)
Referee: Mark McDonald
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