Bathshack Senior Hurling Championship
Group Two – Match Day Three
St John’s 3-19 Dunloy 5-23
Saturday 6 September
Brendan McTaggart reports from Corrigan Park, Belfast
A strong first half performance from Dunloy ensured they sealed their place in the last four on Saturday evening. With the winner of the contest taking top spot, the Cuchullains started superbly, scoring 2-6 in a little over 10 minutes to just one point from St John’s to put them in control of the contest.
Dunloy scored an eye watering 5-18 from open play, a stark contrast to their last outing against Naomh Éanna where they spurned numerous goal chances. They looked close to their clinical best with ball in hand on Saturday evening.
Seaan Elliott and Eoin O’Neill scored a brace of majors while Luke McFerran added another. Despite only playing for 30 minutes, Elliott would top score with 2-6 as he formed part of an attacking unit that cut loose on the day. ‘Sammy’ O’Neill excelled on the edge of the square while the piercing runs of Nigel Elliott and Tom McFerran proved to be difficult to counter for the Johnnies.
The sides were tied on three points each after the opening exchanges before Dunloy scored the opening goal in the seventh minute. Kevin Molloy collecting a long puck out from Ryan Elliott before finding Seaan Elliott in space. Elliott unselfishly passed to O’Neill and ‘Sammy’ made no mistake from close range.
Five unanswered points followed before Seaan Elliott scored the second Dunloy goal. Nigel Elliott breaking from a ruck in the middle third. Surveying his options, Elliott found his brother Seaan in space and he found the bottom corner in the 18th minute.
Oisin Donnelly did manage to split the uprights and the home side had a massive goal chance of their own when Donal Carson pounced on a rare error in the Cuchullains full back line but his pulled effort went wide.
A pointed effort from Oisin MacManus reduced the deficit to 10 points with just under 10 minutes of the first half remaining as the home side looked to quell the Dunloy attack. Their own forward unit looked to be misfiring, eight wides in the opening 30 minutes hurt their challenge while the Cuchullains were at their clinical best in the first half.
Conor Johnston and Shea Shannon shared 10 points evenly between them, Johnston’s scores all coming in the second half. The Johnnies goals came from Enda McGurk and substitutes Daragh McGuinness and Peter McCallin as they played closer to their capabilities in the final quarter but Dunloy had most of the hard work of this game done in the first half.
Seaan Elliott’s second goal came in the 26th minute, Tom McFerran with the assist but St John’s finished the half well. A brace of points from MacManus and one from Shannon left 10 between the sides at half time.
It could have been a larger deficit but for some last gasp defending from Ryan McNulty to deny Paul Shiels when ‘Shorty’ looked well placed to score his sides fourth major.
That 10 point gap was stretched to 12 with a free from Aodhan McGarry and substitute Chrissy McMahon. St John’s looked to find some momentum however with Donal Carson and Conor Johnston leading the way. Johnston managed to fire over three points unanswered in the space of two minutes to give St John’s hope of overturning the Dunloy lead. Those hopes were dashed however as the Cuchullains rattled over 1-4 unanswered in the space of five minutes. Keelan Molloy (two), O’Neill and Nigel Elliott raising white flags while Luke McFerran added the fourth Dunloy major in the 42nd minute.
McFerran took his tally to 1-1 for the evening moments later to stretch the Dunloy lead to 17 points going into the final quarter. The home side rallied however with two goals in a little over three minutes. Enda McGurk finding the back of Ryan Elliott’s goal after some intricate play between Carson and Johnston while Carson was involved again for McCallin’s goal in the 50th minute. While he looked to be out of options and in the corner, Carson picked out the run of McCallin through the middle with a delightful pass and he made no mistake, finding the bottom corner.
The fifth Dunloy goal came with five minutes of the hour remaining. Eoin O’Neill taking his tally to 2-2 after firing in the rebound to his initial effort that was superbly stopped by Jack Bohill.
The Johnnies continued to play some enterprising hurling at the other end of the pitch and after a goal mouth scramble, substitute Daragh McGuinness pounced to pull the sliotar to the back of Ryan Elliott’s net.
Deaglan Smith and Conor Johnston split the posts in injury time as Dunloy ran out comfortable winners.
This was a super game of hurling between two sides who played with attacking intent. St John’s will rue the 15 minute periods in either half that saw Dunloy put daylight between the sides. They did finish the game well and will take plenty of encouragement from that when they prepare for the quarter finals while the Cuchullains will welcome the break given their dual commitments.
TEAMS
ST JOHN’S: Domhnall Nugent; Ryan McNulty, Conal Morgan, Jack Bohill; Ronan Donnelly, Conall Bohill, Enda McGurk (1-00); Sean Wilson, Shea Shannon (0-5, 4fs); Oisin Donnelly (0-1), Conor Johnston (0-5), Aaron Bradley (0-3); Donal Carson, Oisin MacManus (0-3, 1f), Michael Bradley
Subs: Peter McCallin (1-00) for M Bradley (37); Michail Dudley (0-2) for O MacManus (40); Caoimhin Hanna for O Donnelly (53); Daragh McGuinness (1-00) for D Carson (52)
Scorers: S Shannon 0-5 (4fs); C Johnston 0-5; A Bradley 0-3; O MacManus 0-3 (1f); E McGurk 1-00; D McGuinness 1-00; P McCallin 1-00; M Dudley 0-2; O Donnelly 0-1
DUNLOY: Ryan Elliott; Phelim Duffin, Eoin McFerran, Oran Quinn; Paul Shiels, Ryan McGarry, Kevin Molloy; Nicky McKeague, Nigel Elliott; Aodhan McGarry, Seaan Elliott, Keelan Molloy; Luke McFerran, Eoin O’Neill, Tom McFerran
Subs: Eamon Smyth for N McKeague (HT); Chrissy McMahon for S Elliott (HT); Deaglan Smith for P Shiels (41); Reece Cunning for P Duffin (48); Aaron Crawford for Keelan Molloy (52)
Scorers: S Elliott 2-6 (3fs, 1’65); E O’Neill 2-2; L McFerran 1-1; Kevin Molloy 0-2; Keelan Molloy 0-2; N Elliott 0-2; A McGarry 0-2 (1f); T McFerran 0-2; C McMahon 0-2; D Smith 0-1; N McKeague 0-1
Referee: Colm McDonald (Naomh Gall)
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