ACHL Division 4
All Saints 4-19 Latharna Og 1-11
All Saints, Ballymena and Latharna Og, Larne served up an entertaining game of hurling in good conditions at Slemish Park in Ballymena on Sunday afternoon.
The scoreline slightly flatters the hosts with the visitors putting in a good shift but unable to match the scoring prowess of their hosts on the day.
The opening half saw the Larne men match their opponents in the scoring stake with All Saints holding a 0-9 to 0-8 lead approaching half time but a goal from Paddy Doherty just before the break saw the Ballymena head to the dressing room leading 1-10 to 0-8.
Damian Gillan, Cormac Magill, JP McGurk and Doherty had shared the point scoring for the home side while the free taking of Darren Martin, Kieran Mulvenna, Tom Clarkin, Cathal McKillop and 2 superb efforts from Ryan McDonnell, (1 sideline cut) kept the visitors very much in touch.
Indeed Latharna Og might have had a goal themselves but Ronan McAllister in the All Saints goals pulled off a good save to deny Mark Petticrew.
Damian Gillan for the home side and Ryan O’Donnell exchanged points on the restart before Paddy Doherty drove a 20 meter free to the Larne net to open up a 9 point lead by the 5th minute as All Saints moved up a gear.
Doherty would finish off his hat trick after being set up by Damian Gillan and complete a memorable evening’s hurling with his fourth with time almost up.
In between Latharna og kept plugging away with their goal arriving through Darren Martin after 5 minutes but despite pushing hard for the remainder of the half they could not breech a tight All Saints defence, well marshalled by Dwayne McKee, the Brady’s and Daniel Gray.
Ryan O’Donnell continued to impress for the visitors with a number of excellent points from distance with Mark Petticrew and Darren Martin also on target.
It was the Ballymena side who pushed on however with Damian Gillan driving his side forward and hitting a number of fine scores and Jack Magill, Cormac Magill and Paddy Doherty all raising the white flag.
This win keeps All Saints in touch with Ardoyne at the top of the leage, the Ballymena side suffering only one defeat to date but Latharna Og’s position at the other end of the table certainly doesn’t do their performance justice and it won’t be too long before they get their first win if today is anything to go by.
All Saints: 1 Ronan McAllister, 2 Kevin Brady, 3 Dwayne McKee, 4 Aodhan Casey, 5 Fiontan Brady, 20 Gary Miskella, 7 Daniel Gray, 8 Vincent Esler, 9 Jack Magill, 10 Michael Connolly, 11 Cormac Magill, 12 Tiernan McGurk, 13 Damian Gillan, 23 Patrick Doherty, 21 Daniel McCoy.
Subs: Paddy Murphy for Vinny Esler, Finn Connon for Gary Miskella
Latharna Og: 1 Rori Millar, 2 Lee Magill, 3 Mark Petticrew, 4 Francis McCambridge, 5 Brian Rogan, 6 Cathal McKillop, 7 Eoin Walsh, 8 Ryan O’Donnell, 9 Kieran Mulvenna, 10 Ryan Millar, 11 Darren Martin, 12 Kieran McKillop, 13 Tom Clarkin, 14 Matthew Magill, 15 Dara Kerr, 19 Jim McGrann
Referee: Ryan O’Reilly (Glenravel)
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