ACFL Division 2
St. Brigid’s Cloughmills 1-17 Kickham’s Creggan 0-25
Report: Joe Rice
Kickham’s Creggan travelled to Cloughmills on Sunday with the sides serving up an entertaining game of hurling and providing some excellent scores over the hour. In a highly competitively first half, the sides were level on a couple of occasions but it was the hosts who finished the half stronger to lead by two at the interval.
After the break it was the Kickham’s who took control as they gained the upper hand around mid-field and the South West lads pulled away for a comfortable 5 point win as the hosts scoring threat dried up, with St Brigids only able to add 4 points from the placed ball converted by the sweet striking Michael Devlin.
Referee, Fionntan McCotter, got proceedings underway and Creggan were 2 points up in as many minutes, both off the hurl of Kevin Rice before James O’Boyle responded on the 4th minute to reduce the gap to 1.
Creggan’s tally increased with a point a piece from Conor McCann and Morgan Nelson but the home side’s responded from a superb goal from the hurl of Eoin Dobbin, giving Creggan’s keeper no chance.
As we reached the 15-minute mark it was point for point as Creggan’s Ronan McGuckian, Sean McAuley, Ruari McCann, Morgan Nelson and Sean Duffin added points with St Brigid’s, Michael Devlin, adding to his tally with 2 further points from play, reducing the deficit to 2 points between the sides.
Both sides battled on intensely with 3 more points from play for the visitors, Sam Maguire, Sean Duffin and Conor McCann. St Brigids, for their part, were biting at the heels of the visitors with Stephen Smyth scoring 2 points on the trot in the 15th & 16th minute and Geoffrey Og Laverty narrowed the gap to a point with 19 minutes gone before Michael Devlin converted a free to put the sides level.
Eoin Dobbin nudged St Brigids ahead on the 21st minute while Ryan Watson increased the gap to 2 points as St. Brigid’s enjoyed a period of domination. Conor McCann converted a free to reduce the deficit to the minimum again but Cloughhmills increased the gap to 3 points with 28 minutes gone through a converted 65 from Michael Devlin and a superb long range point from play by Eoin Dobbin. Creggan did pull 1 back in injury time with Conor McCann getting the last score of the first half to leave the ‘Biddies’ leading by two at the break.
HALF TIME SCORE: ST BRIGDS 1.13 v CREGGAN 0.14
Fionntan McCotter had to blow his whistle several times to encourage Creggan out of the changing room as St Brigids lined up eager to resume where they had left off. Creggan’s Sam Maguire pointed immediately for the Kickham’s and his team mate, Morgan Nelson added another in the 34th minute it was all square. Michael Devlin’s briefly edged the home side ahead again from a free but at this stage of the game the tide was turning and the visitors were starting to take control.
Creggan responded with 3 unanswered points, 2 from Conor McCann and another from Morgan Nelson, to put their team 2 ahead with the home side replying from another free in the 44th minute by Devlin and as we headed into the final quarter Creggan were dominating all over the field.
St Brigid’s just couldn’t break down the visitors’ defence while at the other end Creggan increased their lead with points in the 45th, 46th and 47th minutes from Ruari McCann (0-2)and 1 from Conor McCann to edge three ahead. The St. Brigid’s scoring threat had all but dried up at this stage and again it was left to Michael Devlin to convert a free in the 51st minute.
As we headed into the last 5 minutes of normal time, Creggan’s Conor McCann converted 3 more frees to give his team a 5 point cushion and with 3 minutes left of injury time on the clock, Cloughmill’s Michael Devlin converted his 4th free of the half while the concluding score of the match fell to Creggan’s Morgan Nelson, giving the visitor’s a comfortable 5 point win.
ST BRIGIDS: No.1 Christopher McKern, No.2 Johnny Duffin, No.3 Corey Blair, No.4 Sean McKendry, No.5 Reece Watt, No.6 Ruari Laverty, No.7 Ryan Dobbin, No.8 Geoffrey Og Laverty (0.02), No.9 James O’Boyle (0.02), No.10 Ryan McFarline, No.11 Michael Devlin (0.08), No.12 Conor Laverty, No.12 Ryan Watson (0.01), No.14 Eoin Dobbin (1.02), No.15 Stephen Smyth (0.02), No.16 Cathaoir McFerran, No.17 Dean O’Boyle, No.18 James Doherty, No.19 Seamus Duffin, No.20 Conor McKendry, No.21 Jack McDowell, No.22 Aaron McGuckian, No.23 Kevin O’Boyle, No.24 Dara Waterson, No.25 Michael Reid.
CREGGAN: No.1 Cormac Rice, No.2 Ryan McGrath, No.3 Odhran Hamsey, No.4 Peadar McGuckian, No.5 Sennan O’Boyle, No.6 Kealan McCann, No.7 Daniel Dornan, No.8 Sam Maguire (0.02), No.9 Ronan McGuckian (0.01), No.10 Sean Duffin (0.10), No.12 Ruari McCann (0.04), No.13 Morgan Nelson (0.04), No.14 Kevin Rice (0.02), No.15 Sean McAuley, No.17 Thomas McCann, No.18 Michael Maguire, No.19 Paul Colgan, No.20 Aidan McIlwee, No.21 Shea Devlin, No.23 Conor McCann (0.07).
REFEREE: FIONNTAN McCOTTER
TO VIEW MORE PICS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW