Late scoring burst gives Loughiel victory in Feis Cup quarter-final

Feis Cup quarter final – Senior Hurling

Ballycastle 0-18 Loughgiel 1-17

Three late points gave Loughgiel victory over Ballycastle in Wednesday evening’s quarter final of the Senior Feis Cup at Pairc MacUílin. The home team had chances to bring the game to extra time but the Loughgiel defence held firm in injury time to book theirplace in the semi-final.

In a top class game Loughgiel flew from the traps when midfielder Darragh Patterson won possession from the throw-in and raced through to raise the first white flag inside ten second, but the home team were level a minute later when Tiernan Smyth sent one over from out on the right wing. Loughgiel went two clear when Paul Boyle and Rian ‘Bubbles’ McMullan added points at the other end, but the pace of the game remained high three in a row from the Town, one from Seamus McAuley and two from Niall McKenna had edged them back ahead on eight minutes.

Back came the Shamrocks and two from Bubbles McMullan and a peach of a point from ‘Bicky’ McGarry put them two clear, but Ballycastle were finding their range, and they hit six on the trot in as many minutes as Tiernan Smyth and Seamus McAuley levelled the scores before two apiece by Conor Donnelly and Niall McKenna moved them four ahead by the 21^st minute. Twice Loughgiel cut the deficit back to three, through Shan McGrath and McMullan but in both cases the home side found an answer, Mark McClean and Seamus McAuley hitting the target, and when McKenna brought his first half tally to five the gap was out to five, though Shan McGrath reduced that to four in first half injury time.

The gap was back to five when McKenna hit the first point of the new half within a minute of the restart and it stayed that way until Shan McGrath got the Shamrocks first point of the second half on 36 minutes. Loughgiel won the puck-out and Eoin McGarry fired over to cut the gap to three before James McNaughton brought the sides level with a superbly taken goal following a length of the field move in which McMullan sent him clear with a deft pass.

Neill McAuley pushed the Town back ahead but Shan McGrath levelled again and it stayed that way as Seamus McAuley and Darragh Patterson exchanged points.

Substitute Darragh Donnelly put Ballycastle back in front with ten minutes to go but six minutes from the end of normal time substitute Conall McCloskey gave the Shamrocks the lead and in the minute that remained Jack McCloskey put them two clear. McKenna got it back to a point again in injury time but Declan McCloskey had the final say for Loughgiel and his well taken point secured a two point win.