Played in super weather conditions the senior hurlers put together a complete performance to pick up our second league win away to Armoy on Sunday.
Both teams traded points early on with Colm McKee on target with a nice effort from 45 metres out on the right sideline and Armoy pointing from a free in a central position of the pitch. A Chris Gallagher sideline cut from 55 metres split the posts and when Stephen McGivern raced past the Armoy defence and pointed we had established a 2 point advantage. An Armoy point from a 65 kept them on our coat tails but another pointed free from Chris Gallagher and a point on the run from Caoimhin Rainey, we extended our lead.
Armoy responded with a brace of points, one from a free and the other from a 65 before Leigh McGrady blasted to the net. We kept the foot down as momentum built, with Anthony Rowntree firing over the bar, Stephen McGivern pointing and Deaglan Mooney striking a long range point from his own half to open up a 7 point lead.
Armoy clawed their way back into the game with their first major as the sliotar was pulled on the ground and past the keeper. We struck three consecutive points, two from Chris Gallagher frees and one from Stephen McGivern. Armoy finished the half with two points to leave them in arrears 1-6 to 1-11.
On the resumption we got the perfect start when Colm McKee gave a handpass to Caoimhin Rainey, who broke the tackles and while under extreme pressure, lashed a low shot to the back of the net. The home side didn’t lie down and hit back with 1-1 to edge closer but again we responded with two points from Stephen McGivern, one after receiving an exquisite bounce pass from Chris Gallagher to get himself out of trouble. Armoy forced their way back into contention with 5 consecutive points, four coming from frees, to leave the minimum between the sides. Again, we showed our battling qualities and 3 Chris Gallagher points (2x 65s) regained some breathing space. However, this didn’t last long as Armoy struck their third goal, to again leave them a point behind. Armoy came at us in the closing stages but all over the park we stood up and were counted as we thwarted any scoring opportunities and we finished strongly with Chris Gallagher tagging on 2 points to give us the win 3-12to 2-18.
Click here for photos of the game.
Scorers: Colm McKee 0-1, Chris Gallagher 0-9, Stephen McGivern 0-5, Caoimhin Rainey 1-1, Leigh McGrady 1-0, Anthony Rowntree 0-1 and Dealgan Mooney 0-1
