O’Neills Derry SFC round three
Newbridge 1-25 The Loup 1-4
Defending champions Newbridge threw down a serious gauntlet at Owenbeg, filleting neighbours Loup by twenty one points. The highly impressive victory adds the Sean O’Leary’s name to the quarter-final pot to be drawn late last night.
Manager Gary Hetherington cut the figure of a man very comfortable with what he had just witnessed but struck a note of caution when he spoke after the big win.
“We were champions last year. We’re not champions this year,’ he said.
“That’s what I keep telling the boys. Last year’s been and gone. There’s different rules.
“It’s a different game now. Other teams are better than they were last year.
“We need to keep adapting and keep working hard. If we keep going, we know that whoever we play in the quarter-final, if we play like that in the first 10 minutes in two weeks’ time, we’ll be out.
“We got off to a terrible start,’ he continued, ‘but the way the lads responded was very good. We were more than happy at half time after the first 10 minutes.’
Loup threatened a serious upset, however briefly, racing to a 1-4 to no score lead early on at Owenbeg.
A dream start for Declan McVey’s team primarily built upon Aaron McAlynn’s opening two pointer the curtain-raiser for Ciaran Devlin’s goal in the opening couple of minutes.
Devlin made no mistake to slide the ball into the back of the Newbridge net from close range.
“After that, they had very little shots,’ explained Hetherington.
“We contained them well. I was disappointed because we had the first three attacks of the game. When we gave the ball away easy, it got turned over.
“There was a bit of slackness, but we shouldn’t have been slack, so we’ll have to address that this week. The first 10 minutes, we were certainly asking questions.”
The champions, already drinking at the last chance saloon having already tasted defeat at the hands of Dungiven, sprung into life having slumbered for the opening scoreless 13 minutes.
Gary Hetherington and Kevin Brady’s embarked upon a handsome scoring spree, scoring a consecutive ten points to run in four points up at the interval.
After the break it was all Newbridge. County star Padraig McGrogan, showing serious hunger throughout having missed last year’s glorious campaign, landed a mighty two pointer to ignite fourteen points without reply.
Oisin Doherty produced one of his best displays in senior club colours, amassing 1-7, with the young Derry U20 star heavily supported by any numbers of team-mates weighing in with scores.
The Young brothers, Eamon and Sean, scored seven points between them with Sean Young in particular catching the eye with a sparkling performance of forward play.
“In my eyes, I can’t speak highly enough for Sean,’ said Hetherington.
”He has the world at his feet. He can do what he wants to do. At the minute, he’s playing really, really well.
“He’s fit. Last year, he did a few niggles and kept interrupting his rhythm. That’s why we took him off to try and save him and keep him going. He’s playing top football at the minute.”
Captain Conor McAteer added three second half scores and Conor Doherty also nailed a fine two pointer.
Beaten Loup failed to score after the 10th minute, departing this year’s championship with a whimper.
Faughanvale 3-11 Bellaghy 2-20
BELLAGHY cruised to a comfortable six-point win over Faughanvale on Saturday.
Damon Gallagher produced a man-of-the-match performance at Owenbeg, hitting a stunning 1-9 over the hour.
A converted Gallagher penalty on the cusp of half-time handed the Tones a sizeable 1-8 to 0-3 lead at the break, with Gallagher scoring 1-5 of that tally, including including one almighty two-pointer.
Other than an early disallowed goal, underdogs Faughanvale struggled to reproduce their best form against the 21-times winners, with Conor McGuinness and Jordan Curran among their small cast of scorers.
Bellaghy’s eight-point lead accurately reflected their dominance in the opening 30 minutes.
The ’Vale briefly threatened a fightback soon after the restart, with Shane McElhinney goaling in an unanswered 1-2.
Stung into action, however, Bellaghy scored nine of the next 10 scores to nail the Faughanvale coffin shut tight.
Eoin McElhinney goaled midway through the second half and Jude Bryson scored a clinker of a goal late on to wipe some blood off the Faughanvale scoreboard.
Midfielders Peter Cassidy and Oisin McErlean provided the foundation for victory, with McErlean nailing the Wolfe Tones’ second goal.
