After a weekend of hurling championship it’s down to the football tonight with games in the Intermediate Football Championship.
IFC GROUP 1 – 7.15pm
St. Teresa’s v Ardoyne
St. Teresa’s and Ardoyne get the action underway in Group 1 at MhicDhomhnaill/UiDhoctirtigh Park with the home side favourites to win that one. St. Teresa’s finished second in division 2 of the league while Ardoyne were relegated to division 3
IFC GROUP 1 – 7.15pm
Rasharkin v St. Paul’s
The action continues in Group 1 when St. Paul’s travel to Dreen to take on Rasharkin and while they will not get it easy I would expect division 2 league winners, St. Paul’s to edge that one. Rasharkin did enough to maintain their division 2 status and will be no pushover in the championship and are likely to push the Shaw’s Road outfit to the wire.
IFC GROUP 2 – 7.15pm
All Saints v Gort na Mona
The only division 1 team competing in this year’s Intermediate Championship, All Saints get this year’s Group 2 campaign underway as they entertain Gort na Mona. The Ballymena side enjoyed a good division 1 campaign this year, finishing third while Gort na Mona struggled in division 2.
All Saints should get their campaign off to a winning start but their opponents, Gort na Mona are an experienced side and are capable of much better than their league form suggests.
IFC GROUP 2
Sarsfield’s V Davitt’s – 7.15pm
The meeting of Sarsfield’s and Davitt’s at the Bear Pit could well prove to be the tightest game of tonight’s fixtures with the ‘Paddies’ buoyed by a great opening win over Cushendun in last weekend’s Intermediate Hurling championship. Quite a number of those players could be back in action tonight against a Davitt’s side who finished above them in division 2 of the league and this one could go either way.
Milltown Row played host to a captivating Championship duel between two free-flowing and attacking sides. Curtain raisers can often be attritional, rather cautious affairs but this one was far from it and the spectators dotted along the side line were treated to an absolute deluge of scores right from Ray Mathew’s first whistle. You simply couldn’t take your eyes off it. Thirty scores in the opening thirty minutes should tell you all you need to know. With the sides level on ten different occasions throughout the opening period, it was nip and tuck between the two. The difference in the end – ruthlessness in front of the net which the Oisins had in abundance when it mattered most. Three Glenariffe goals in the final ten minutes of this pulsating encounter added a little extra gloss to a polished performance from the men from the Glens. A special mention must be extended to hat-trick hero Seanie McIntosh who spearheaded their attack; notching up a dazzling individual tally of 3-04 over the hour.
With merely 50 seconds on the clock, both sides had already opened their accounts as Jackson McGreevy and McIntosh exchanged early frees before the visitors nudged two clear thanks to Oliver Kearney and another from their mercurial number fifteen. With their tails up, the men in green surged forward in sight of a goal and were unlucky in their search as St Gall’s stopper Kurtis McGreevy pulled off an excellent save to deny Orin O’Connor from close range.
St Gall’s replied to this close shave emphatically and conjured up their own goal chance. Again, the keepers were in the limelight with Paul McMullan on hand to deny Ronan Crossan, but he was powerless to stop Jackson McGreevy who stormed in to blast home the rebound and produce the game’s first major with five minutes on the clock.
Unperturbed, the Oisins replied instantly via the hurl of Brogan O’Connor who fired over from range to level matters. Scores were flying over tit for tat as both teams wrestled to gain the ascendancy. Two points from St Gall’s ace Sean McAreavey were cancelled out thanks to efforts from McIntosh and Kearney again.
Neither side could break away from the other and it really was a case of you score, we score. The hosts sought about forcing some daylight between the sides as Jackson McGreevy fired over two placed balls and set up another white flag with an audacious flick behind himself to pave the way for Ronan Crossan to guide over his second of the evening. However, Glenariffe’s heavy attacking artillery were on hand to respond every time as Kieran McKendry, Alex O’Boyle and Seanie McIntosh split the posts to bring about yet another deadlock.
It then seemed that the men in green had established a bit of breathing space as they gained a three point cushion thanks to points from Conor Patterson, O’Boyle and Odhran Gillan. However, the Milltown men came roaring back firing over the next four points unanswered with the pick of the bunch coming from Mark Napier who guided his effort between the posts to perfection from a tight angle to edge into a slender one point lead with four minutes of the half remaining.
What followed was perhaps the most crucial score of the opening thirty. A bustling drive forward from Orin O’Connor presented an opportunity for Seanie McIntosh to gain his side’s first major, an opportunity which was ruthlessly despatched as he drilled his effort low and hard out of reach of the despairing McGreevy. O’Connor and Jackson McGreevy then exchanged points to leave the score 1-15 to 1-13 in favour of the visitors who would refuse to relinquish their lead for the remainder.
Scores were a little more at a premium in the second period, or at least they were for this games’ exceptionally lofty standards. The visitors resumed proceedings in a similar fashion to how they had ended the first, with another vital goal as Conor Patterson put the finishing touches on a move which was forged by Alex O’Boyle’s sheer tenacity driving forward.
Despite the setback, the hosts responded admirably and refused to lie down. In fact, they held their opponents scoreless for the next twenty minutes. Their attacking approach centred around Patrick Friel’s long balls in to the inside forwards which worked a treat as Sean McAreavey, Fergus Donnelly and Mark Napier all split the posts. Tomás O’Ciaran and Ronan Crossan followed this up with two contenders for score of the game. O’Ciaran’s was a monster effort from deep in his own half with Crossan having absolutely no right to score from the ridiculously acute angle he found himself in. Game on once again it seemed.
The men in blue were now piling on the pressure as they continued to blaze the comeback trail. Their quest appeared to be bolstered when Niall Murray received a second yellow card for a pulldown with ten minutes left on the clock. Napier tapped over the resulting free and with a mere point separating the sides, it seemed a grandstand finish was in proposition.
McIntosh and his comrades had other ideas though as they left their opponents shell-shocked with three goals in nine minutes. A Brogan O’Connor goal was sandwiched between two majors from Glenariffe’s sharpshooter to complete his hat-trick. St Gall’s desperately tried to muster a goal of their own to test their counterpart’s nerve but the opportunity failed to materialise. Mark Napier and Dubhaltach MacLiam’s efforts from range found their mark but it would be too little too late as the damage had been done.
Credit to both teams for an absorbing spectacle. With the pendulum of momentum swinging to and fro for the majority of the game, St Gall’s will feel that the nine point margin of victory perhaps didn’t fully reflect their efforts and they can take solace in the fact that they refused to throw in the towel. For Glenariffe, it was the perfect start to their campaign. They will certainly now look to keep the momentum going in their next game against Glenarm and will once again look to the prolific forward line to fashion another victory.
Teams:
St Gall’s:
K McGreevy; D Churchill, E Rush, O McIlhatton; P Friel, T O’Ciaran (0-01,) R Irvine; J Hopkins, F Donnelly (0-02,) J Hopkins; N O’Neill, M Donnelly (0-01,) R Crossan (0-03;) S McAreavey (0-05,) J McGreevy (1-04,) M Napier (0-04)
Substitute scorer:
D MacLiam (0-01)
Glenariffe
P McMullan; P McIlwaine, N Murray, C McIlwaine; C Patterson (1-01,) M Haughey, D Kearney; O Kearney (0-03,) O Gillan (0-01;) K McKendry (0-02,) A O’Boyle (0-04,) R Leech; B O’Connor (1-02,) O O’Connor (0-01,) S McIntosh (3-04)
TO SEE MORE OF BERT TROWLEN’S PICS FROM THIS GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
A wasteful Greenlough maintained their unbeaten start to finally get the better of All Saints in Sunday’s Ulster Intermediate Football league match in Ballymena. A strong first half performance from the Slemish Park side coupled with a first half goal saw the Ballymena side move into a four point lead.
Greenlough battled back and Seoirse Lagan and Cillian Moore points closed the gap as the visitors continued to be wasteful in front of the posts missing a number of goal opportunities. The Lough started the second half stronger and Jude Moore, Matthew Bradley and James O Neill pointed to keep the scoreboard ticking over as Greenlough ran out seven point winners.
Three second half goals proved the difference in the end as Desertmartin came from behind to pip Moneyglass in an entertaining Ulster Intermediate Football League encounter on Sunday.
On a good day for football it was St. Ergnat’s who were quickest out of traps scoring from the throw in through full forward Colum Duffin. The same player would remain prominent in the early stages, helping his side to a 0-4 to 0-0 lead after 5 minutes as the South West side opened strongly.
Slowly Desertmartin stemmed the tide as they registered the next 2 scores but this wasn’t to disrupt the Moneyglass dominance scoring as they came back with 4 more points with a single Desertmartin reply leaving the score 0-8 to 0-3 after 20 minutes.
During this period of dominance the Antrim side missed a couple of goal chances which would have put them in a strong position and to their credit Desertmartin went score for score with the opposition for the remainder of the half to leave the score at the midway point 0-11 to 0-7 in favour of St Ergnat’s
2nd half
Trailing by four, Desertmartin knew they would need the better start as they hit the first 2 scores of the second half with Colum Duffin responding for St. Ergnat’s to leave it 0-12 to 0-9 in favour of the Marian Hill side.
Desertmartin began to settle, slowing but surely cutting into their opponents lead and would turn the game on its head as they fired home the first major of the evening and more importantly drawing the teams level 1-09 to 0-12. Following this the teams traded points before Moneyglass stepped it up again, reeling off 3 on the trot and seemingly back in control.
But as before Desertmartin refused to go away and by the 20th minute it was still anyone’s game with St. Ergnat’s leading 0-717 to 1-12. With the game now entering the final minutes Desertmartin again turned the game on its head again with a second goal to move them one ahead. goal putting them 1 up.
It was still anybody’s game with both teams now going for it score by score but as the South West side pushed for an equaliser they were turned over and it was Desertmartin who broke up field to score their 3rd goal of the afternoon, leaving final score 3-13 to 18 points in what was a very competitive and entertaining game.
All Saints staged a strong finish to overcome the spirited challenge of Moneyglass in round 2 of the Ulster Intermediate Club league to make it two wins from two starts at Slemish Park this morning.
The visitors fell behind to early points from Benny McDonnell and Michael McCarry, and with Emmet Killough, Joe Rafferty and Charlie Metrustry working hard around mid-field, the home side moved into a 0-4 to 0-0 lead.
The Marian Hill men began to get a foothold in the game with Colm Duffin getting them on their way with a couple of converted frees and a goal from Shanaghan Duffin at the end of the opening quarter saw the visitors level at the break 1-2 to 0-5.
Colm ‘Smilie’ Duffin moved Moneyglass ahead at the start of the second half from a free after being fouled himself with Ronan McKillop bringing it all square with a point at the other end.
The visitors then lost a player to a straight red card, ten minutes into the second half as matters became a little heated and when Martin McErlain got things going again it was the Ballymena side who took advantage of the extra man to finish strongly.
Ciaran Campbell got on the end of a turnover to lob the Moneyglass keeper who found himself in no man’s land and Benny McDonnell, Darach Bradley and a couple of converted frees from Michael McCarry saw them run out comfortable seven point winners.
All Saints now travel to Greenlough next Sunday morning where they are likely to face their toughest test to date while Moneyglass entertain Desertmartin who drew 1-12 to 1-12 with Sarsfields in the other group D game played today.
