ACFL Division 1

St. Ergnat’s 1-8 Cargin 2-13

A goal from Conan Johnston after 9 minutes swung this game firmly in the direction of Erin’s Own Cargin as they overcame the challenge of neighbours, St. Ergnat’s Moneyglass at Marion Hill on Wednesday evening.

Up to this point the home side were giving as good as they got with points from Conor Boyd, Colum Duffin and Seanchan Duffin in response to similar scores from Tomas McCann and Cahir Donnelly leaving it finely balanced after 12 minutes.

Johnston’s goal changed all that and St. Ergnat’s would not raise another flag for the remainder of the half as league leaders, Cargin pushed on with James Laverty, Tomas McCann, Tom Shivers and two more from the impressive McCann moving the visitors 1-7 to 0-3 ahead at the halfway point.

St. Ergnat’s threatened a comeback at the start of the second half as they hit three points on the bounce through Kevin McCann and two from Colum Duffin to leave four between the sides with only five minutes of the second half gone.

Things turned decisively in favour of the visitors however when they were awarded a penalty in the 8^th minute and Tomas McCann stepped forward to beat Daniel McErlain from the spot and restore his side’s 7 point advantage.

Conan Johnston and Tomas McCann added points for the visitors with Dermot McErlain replying for the home side and Ben McLarnon and Aidan McErlain exchanged further points as the Toome side continued to enjoy the better of the exchanges.

Kevin McShane came forward from defence to add another point for Cargin with four minutes of normal time remaining but Moneyglass were still fighting hard and were finally rewarded for their efforts as Aiden McErlain fired past John McNabb in the 27^th minute.

It only served to put a better look on the scoreline however and Tom Shivers replied with a point at the other end to conclude the scoring to keep Ronan Devlin’s side top of the league on score difference over Portglenone and St. Brigid’s.

Moneyglass opened their account last week with a win over Aldergrove in Crumlin and while they never really looked like adding another victory here, there will be aspects of their play that will be pleasing to manager, Benny Marron and that second win shouldn’t be too long in coming.

St. Ergnat’s: 1 Daniel McErlain, 2 Colm McStocker, 3 Diarmuid Scullin, 4 James McCormick, 6 Paul Duffin, 7 Connlaodh McCann, 8 Connor O’Kane, 9 Dermot McErlain, 10 Jimmy McMeel, 11 Seanchan Duffin, 12 Eamonn Kelly, 13 Conor Boyd, 14 Colm Duffin, 15 Aidan McErlain, 16 Rory Gribbon,

Subs: Sean Boyd for Callum McStocker, Matthew Mullen for Eamonn Kelly, Fergal Duffin for Conor O’Kane, Jamie McLaughlin for Conor O’Kane

Cargin: 1 John McNabb, 2 Sean Og O’Neill, 3 Kevin McShane, 4 Cahir Donnelly, 5 Justin Crozier, 6 Padraic McLaughlin, 7 Jamie Gribbin, 8 Gerard McCann, 9 James Laverty, 10 David Johnston, 11 Tomas McCann, 12 Conan Johnston, 13 Tom Shivers, 14 Michael McCann, 15 Callum Gribbin

Subs: Ben McLarnon

Referee: Kevin Parke (St. Enda’s)

Click on the Moneyglass v Cargin link below

O’Neill’s ACFL Division One

St Enda’s 0-07-0-08 Lámh Dhearg

Kevin Herron reports from Hightown

Lámh Dhearg claimed their first win of the league campaign with a narrow and hard-fought victory over St Enda’s at Hightown on Wednesday evening.

The visitors edged ahead through a converted Adam Murray free inside of two minutes, but Stephen O’Connor floated over from the same scenario to restore parity.

Declan Smyth curled over a fine score after taking a lay-off from Terry McCrudden- though Sean Murray popped over from close range on the midway point of the opening half.

A drag down on Conor Murray gave namesake Adam the chance to double his account and he obliged.

The Red hands doubled their lead before the break, through a fantastic Ciaran Boyd effort that swung between the posts to give his side a 0-04-0-02 advantage at the interval.

Three-unanswered points at the beginning of the second period saw Lámh Dhearg in control.

Adam Murray dropped a shot over after good work from Ben Rice out of defence. Conor Murray was then brought to ground and his quickly taken free rose over the bar.

The hosts almost claimed the opening goal on 37 minutes when Cormac Morgan bore down and shot underneath Gerard Smyth, only for Terry McCrudden to hook the ball off the line.

Defence then turned to attack, and Conor Murray made it successive scores and opened up a 0-07-0-02 lead.

St Enda’s were almost half an hour without a score before Cormac Morgan popped over and Ronan Kalla followed suit a few minutes later.

A converted free from Fionn Nagle whipped out the Lámhs second half advantage and it was all to play for in the final 12 minutes.

Tensions ramped up and on the 52^nd minute both sides were reduced to a 14-men when an off the ball incident saw referee Paul Burns show red-cards to Tomas Gilmour and Fionn Mervyn.

The bare minimum separated the sides thanks a converted Sean Murray free, but the hosts were unable to restore parity despite going on all-out attack in the closing stages.

Lámh Dhearg did well to soak up the pressure and stretched the lead in injury time after Ben Rice burst forward from defence and slipped a pass to Adam Murray- who steered a shot over.

Ronan Kalla responded almost instantly to make it a single-point game once again, however they were unable to force a share of the spoils as Lámh Dhearg held out for their first win of the season at the fifth time of asking.

St Enda’s: S Nagle, K Jennings, D McNulty, E O’Hare, R O’Neill, J McAuley, N Heatley, S Murray (0-02, 0-01f), P Curran, R Kalla (0-02), T Gilmour, C Morgan (0-01), S McBride, S O’Connor (0-01), F Nagle (0-01).

Lámh Dhearg: G Smyth, D Martin, M McGarry, F Mervyn, D Smyth (0-01), B Rice, R Murray, S McManus, C Boyd (0-01), N McGarry, T McCrudden, R Diamond, A Murray (0-04, 0-02f), C Murray (0-02, 0-01f), M Finnegan. Subs: C Fegan for R Diamond (47), P Larkin for N McGarry (59), A McAufield for C Boyd (59), E Campbell for B Rice (60+2).

Referee: Paul Burns (St Comgalls)

ACFL Division 2

Dunloy 2-18 Naomh Padraig 0-15.

Dunloy claimed their third victory of the season in a high scoring and entertaining game at Pearse Park on Wednesday night. Visitors Naomh Padraig raced in to a 2 point lead from the throw in but the Cuchallains managed to get a foothold on the game and went on to dominate first half proceedings.

Dunloy picked apart the deep Lisburn defence with the visitors remaining scores in the first half restricted to placed balls. Half time score Dunloy 1-9 Naomh Padraig 0-5

Naomh Padraig came out much stronger in the second half and started to have their own strong spells of possession. The teams went point for point in the early stages as Lisburn started to fight their way back in to the game. Dunloy however were dangerous on the counter and a Karl Fitzpatrick goal all but ended the fight-back.

Both teams finished strong but the Cuchallains had done enough to hang on and claim the 2 points. Anthony Smith topped scored in the game with the Cuchallian’s forward in fine form all evening.