ACHL Division 1
Rossa 3-20 Portaferry 4-16
O’Donovan Rossa produced a storming finish to edge this excellent contest at Rossa Park on Sunday against a Portaferry side who will feel that they should have got something from this game.
The men from the Ards peninsula led 4-14 to 3-11 early in the final quarter after making a strong comeback which saw them hit goals through Cahal Coleman, Deaglan Mallon and Shane Conlan and Rossa looked in bother.
They found a response through the free taking of Deaglan Murphy and a number of fine long range points from James Connolly and Aodhan O’Brien to edge two in front with time almost up with Portaferry’s late response from Cahal Coleman coming up just short.
Murphy would be a major contributor over the hour for the Shaw’s Road side and he fired over a long range free to get them on their way and added another from a ‘65’ to sandwich a goal from James Connolly and a point from Eoin Trainor.
Portaferry took a time to settle but came back with points from Deaglan Mallon, keeper Pearse Smith from deep in his own half and a long range free from Cahal Coleman to announce their arrival.
A second goal from Connolly when he got the final touch to a long delivery put Rossa 2-3 to 0-3 ahead but Portaferry replied again through the excellent Cahal Coleman 0-2 and Deaglan Mallon to leave just three between the sides.
Connolly for Rossa and Barry Trainor and Deaglan Mallon for the visitors, exchanged points as play swung from end to end and Deaglan Murphy and James Connolly for Rossa and Trainor for Portaferry exchanged further minors as the pace of the game intensified.
The visitors then looked in for a goal but Donal Armstrong in the Rossa goal pulled off a smart save with Deaglan Murphy and Eoghan McMenamin concluding Rossa’s first half scoring and Eoin Magee replying with a monster score for the Ards men.
HT 2-7 TO 0-10
Free taker Murphy edged Rossa four in front on the restart and Pearce Short increased that lead to five before Cahal Coleman finished off a well worked move for Portaferry’s opening goal.
Normal service seemed to have been restored when the impressive Deaglan Murphy finished to the net for the home side’s third goal but the visitors were coming more and more into the game.
Deaglan Mallon closed the gap to two once more with an excellent finish to Donal Armstrong’s net and Niall Fitzsimmons struck a fine long range point before Shane Connlon moved the ‘Ports’ four ahead with his side’s third goal of the contest.
It was compelling viewing as James Connolly and Deaglan Murphy for Rossa exchanged further point with Conor Fay for the visitors and another Murphy free found response from Niall Fitzsimmons following a mix-up in the Rossa defence.
A fourth Portaferry goal from Noah Rogers following a smart turn looked to have put the men from the Ards in a strong position but indiscipline would cost them dearly going down the home straight.
Rossa would out score their opponents 0-8 to 0-3 in the run in to full time with Murphy adding three frees to his impressive total and James Connolly 0-3 and Aodhan O’Brien 0-2 seeing them home by the minimum.
Niall Fitzsimmons, Noah Rogers and Cahal Coleman were the Portaferry marksmen during those final exchanges and they will be scratching their heads on just how they let this one get away from them.
Rossa: 1 Donal Armstrong, 2 Oisin McVicker, 3 Ciaran Orchin, 4 Niall Crossan, 5 Christopher McGuinness, 6 Stephen Beatty, 7 Aodhan O’Brien, 8 Joseph Mulholland 9 Diarmuid Rogan, 10 Eoghan McMenamin, 11 Pearce Short, 12 Daire Murphy, 13 Deaglan Murphy, 14 James Connolly, 15 Eoin Trainor
Subs:
Portaferry: 1 Pearse Smith, 2 Donal Magee, 3 Darragh Mallon, 4 Emmet O’Neill, 5 Barry Trainor, 6 Callum Smith, 7 Ciaran Milligan, 8 Eoin Magee, 9 Shane Conlan, 10 Conor Fay, 11 Deaglan Mallon, 12 Niall Fitzsimmons, 13 Noah Rogers, 14 Brendan Coleman, 15 Cahal Coleman.
Referee: Darren McKeown
TO VIEW MORE OF BERT TROWLEN’S PICS CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW