ACHL Division Three
Gort na Mona 0-12-0-8 Lámh Dhearg
Kevin Herron reports from Enright Park
Gort na Mona got their Division Three campaign up and running with a 0-12-0-8 win over Lámh Dhearg at a windswept Enright Park on Sunday afternoon.
Any chance of a free-flowing hurling encounter taking place were dealt a blow by the blustery conditions on the foot of Black Mountain.
The hosts were dominant in the opening stages and raced into a 0-4 lead with Dessie McClean converting two early frees in the space of 60-seconds, dropping over an angled score from play and Darron Boyd adding a further score inside of five-minutes.
It took Lámh Dhearg 12-minutes to open their account, Daniel Mulholland was fouled and Adam Murray conveyed the resulting free to get his side up and running.
Just after the midway point in the half, Gort na Mona conjured up three further scores without reply to extend their advantage.
Darron Boyd swept a pass into the path of Neil Henry to pop over, McClean landed his second from play and registered a further free to make it 0-7-0-1.
In response, Adam Murray clipped over an angled free, he then played a role in the next score with a slipped pass to Conor McConville to in turn find Daniel Mulholland to swing over a point, and Murray landed his third score from the placed ball to half the deficit at the interval.
Gort na Mona should have found the net twice within the opening five minutes of the restart. The first opportunity came when talisman McClean got out in front to claim a fine pass and his close range shot was parried by Paddy Joe Herron in the Lámhs goal.
McClean dropped the resulting 65’ over and a few minutes later a fine passing move saw Ruairi O’Scollian through on goal, his low shot was somehow kept out by Herron and the loose ball was flicked wide.
They instead had to settle for a O’Scollian point a few minutes later, with Conor McConville jnr replying and getting the Lámhs first score of the half.
The hosts pressed ahead and McClean added another two frees to his increasing tally to make it 0-11-0-5 with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Donal Martin dropped a high shot over and Daniel Mulholland doubled his account for the afternoon in his senior debut to ensure their side kept in touch with 10-minutes remaining.
They were unable to make any further inroads in the remaining minutes however as free-takers McClean and Murray traded a further score before the afternoon was out and Gort na Mona ran out 0-12-0-8 winners at the conclusion.
GORT NA MONA: C McCrory, C Connolly, M Rea, C Scullion, C McCusker, R McKenna, N Gibson, N Henry (0-1), P McCaffrey, T McCaffrey, M McMullan, T O’Cadhlaigh, R O’Scollian (0-1), D McClean (0-9, 0-1 65’, 0-6f), D Boyd (0-1). SUBS: D Hughes for C McCusker (38), MJ Austin for T O’Cadhlaigh (51).
LÁMH DHEARG: PJ Herron, A Ferris, A McGuigan, F Clenaghan, SP GIbson, O Waldron, T McKenna, C Boyd, D Mulholland (0-2), C McConville (0-1), M McGarry, D Murray, A Perry, A Murray (0-4f), D Martin (0-1). SUBS: C Megraw for D Murray (12), O Kane for A Perry (43).
REFEREE: Chris Brown (NAOMH POL)
