Casment Social Club Junior Hurling Championship

Con Magee’s Glenravel 2-16 Glen Rovers Armoy 1-6

THE template for the Glenravel hurlers was set earlier in the day by the Ladies Footballers – get out in front at the start and then hit hard in the minute or two immediately after half-time. 

The hurlers took note and two minutes into the second half of this Casement Social Antrim Junior hurling final the Con Magee’s had one hand on the cup with a lead of 1-11 to 1-0!

Armoy simply couldn’t get going in the first half. They initiated the first couple of attacks only for Cormac McKeown to break and point on Glenravel’s first attack.

Conleth O’Loan pointed a free a second or two later and then Declan Traynor fired over two points in quick succession. 

Armoy steadied the ship a little over the next six minutes, but couldn’t make any headway at the other end of the field where they put three efforts the wrong side of the post.

Meanwhile Glenravel continued to add to their total; another point from McKeown, two from Traynor and then a second free from O’Loan and the lead was doubled to eight points with 24 minutes gone.

Then Armoy got their first break. A long delivery in dropped a bit dead and Arthur Devlin ran through to hit the net.

However Glenravel responded positively with two late pointed frees, one each for O’Loan and Seán McKay to make it 0-10 to 1-0 at the break.

Within 20 seconds of the re-start, O’Loan had the sliotar in the net, almost taking too much out of the ball by circling round to the left before composing himself to kick to the net.

Less than a minute later McKay took a lovely pass from McKeown to hit the target. The game looked in the bag at this stage, but Emmett O’Hara did his best to lift Armoy with a point to which Trevor Linton added a free.

However Glenravel were picking up a lot of dirty ball and creating openings like when Rian Lennon broke to feed Sean McKay for their 12th point.

Armoy though hit a good spell in the middle of the second half with two points from O’Hara either side of another Linton free before a shot from out the field came off the foot of the Glenravel upright and was cleared to safety. Had that effort gone into the net at that stage, there would have been just four points in it and momentum with Glen Rovers.

Over the next five minutes however, Glenravel wrestled that momentum back and put the result to bed.

Seán McKay started it off with a free. Within 60 seconds they had added two more via Conleth O’Loan and Fergus Donaghy. McKay added another free before the coup de grace in the 53rd minute. Luke Loughlin broke free and his delivery made its way through to the unmarked Callum Higgins who took the sliotar to the edge of the area and squeezed it under Tim Burns.

Armoy pushed up for the last five minutes plus with subs sprung from both benches, but they only managed to add a free from Turlough McBride.

The conditions were not really suited to exploit hurling skills, but the winners certainly looked the slicker team with strength over the ground ball, pace out of the tackle and then some excellent points.

Emmett O’Hara, Arthur Devlin and Ronan Lavelle worked hard to get Armoy going, but on the evening they were dominated by Glenravel who now move through to the Ulster arena four years after their last foray brought them to the semi-finals.

Con Magee’s: C Quinn, E McCusker, J Duffin, B O’Neill, J Martin, C Lennon, R Lennon, F Donaghy 0-1, D McAuley, C Higgins 1-0, S McKay 0-5, 3fs, D Donaghy, C O’Loan 1-4, 0-3fs, D Traynor 0-4, C McKeown 0-2.

Subs: L Loughlin for D Donaghy (40), M McDonnell for E McCusker (57), C Laverty for D Traynor (57), R McCormick for D McAuley (60).

Glen Rovers: Tim Burns, Callum Coyles, S Devlin, L Dillon, A Devlin 1-0, Thomas Burns, R Lavelle, C Christie, C McToal, T McBride 0-1 f, E O’Hara 0-3, PJ McBride, T Linton 0-2 fs, C Lordan, C McKenna.

Sub: C Doubthart for C Lordan (40), J McFetridge for C Coyles, Ciarán Coyles for T Linton (59).

Referee: P O’Neill (Creggan)

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