Morgan Fuels Down Senior Club Championship – Round Two: Bredagh v Rostrevor
ROSTREVOR and Bredagh will battle it out tonight to become the first team to reach the Down Morgan Fuels Senior Club Championship quarter-finals.
The game takes place in Newry’s Pairc Esler, with at 7.30pm in contest that should excite and entertain.
Down legend Pete McGrath has a Rostrevor team that packs a punch as they displayed with a rally of three goals before half-time against RGU Downpatrick in the opening round.
Rostrevor’s hopes last season were hampered when Down’s Caolan Mooney opted to play for Neasdan Gaels in the London Club Championship..
But this year the Hogan Cup winner has recovered from a long lay-off from a fractured skull and he showed no ill-affects with his influential performance against Downpatrick last week.
Mooney is hard to stop once he launches his powerful bursting runs as Downpatrick found out by conceding a penalty to him.
Rostrevor are no one-man team though, Conor Doyle, Piaras Kane and Jordan Fegan make a formidable attack, while Shaun Power offers composure and efficiency up top or around the middle.
Jarlath Farrell is one of the most experienced defenders in the championship while Tomas Gordan and Colm Murney present a strong defensive spine and Rostrevor have talent on the bench too.
Paul McGrath and Richie Reynolds have played many big occasions, while nippy forward Anthony Donnan can be a game-changer.
Of course, Bredagh boss Brendan Mason, along with his selectors Martin Durkan, Kevin Muldoon, Fergal Nolan and Simon Francis, will be confident off pulling off back-to-back championship wins, following last week’s win over Castlewellan.
Conor Hannigan is a player that has got many in the county talking and he could be given the task to try and curb the influence of Rostrevor’s Mooney.
Cormac O’Rawe impressed against the Town and the strong 20-year-old will hope to be afforded more opportunities to attack tonight.
Down’s Donal Hughes is the target man for the Cherryvale side, and we could see a frequent use of the forward mark in Newry, while fellow attackers Sean Blaney and the steady kicking Tim Cunningham can cause the Reds problems.
Captain John McKenna and Benny Hasson complement each other in the Bredagh midfield, and they’ll likely face the Rostrevor pairing of James Donaghy and Sean Cooper, although it’s not unheard of for Mooney to be present for the throw-ins.
Both teams play an open and entertaining style of football and as the loser will have another crack at the whip next week, there may not be the intense championship pressure, but with a place in the last eight along with an extra weeks’ break, at stake, this is a contest both sides will want to win.
They won’t get it all their own way, but Rostrevor should have the edge.
The game will also be streamed live, a growing trend across the counties allowing clubs to showcase their seasoned and up-and-coming young talent to as wise an audience as possible in these difficult times, when Covid-19 regulations limit the numbers permitted to attend games.
