Hurling & Camogie

Ballycran and Portaferry into Down senior hurling final

A Daithí Sands goal helped Portaferry to victory over Ballygalget in yesterday's Down SHC semi-final Picture by Philip Walsh
A Daithí Sands goal helped Portaferry to victory over Ballygalget in yesterday's Down SHC semi-final Picture by Philip Walsh A Daithí Sands goal helped Portaferry to victory over Ballygalget in yesterday's Down SHC semi-final Picture by Philip Walsh

Down Senior Hurling Championship: Portaferry 3-13 Ballygalget 0-9; Ballycran 1-24 Bredagh 0-17

PORTAFERRY blasted their way past Ballygalget and into a repeat of last year’s Down senior final with defending champions Ballycran thanks to a 13-point victory at St Patrick’s Park yesterday afternoon.

Ballygalget competed well in the early stages in Portaferry, with Cormac Coulter in accurate form. They got the first two scores of the game before a Daithí Sands goal put the hosts into an early lead.

However, the visitors continued to match Portaferry score for score until a Conor O’Prey goal in the 25th minute put the favourites into a three-point lead, 2-3 to 0-6. A Caolan Taggart point then gave last year’s beaten finalists a 2-5 to 0-6 interval lead.

Further points from Conor O’Prey and Daithí Sands had the Portaferry lead out to 2-12 to 0-9 by the time Ballygalget lost a man through a Jordan Doran red card. The hosts cantered home from there, with a late Tom McGrattan goal putting the icing on the cake.

Yesterday evening, defending champions Ballycran put in an impressive display of their own to make it past Bredagh.

Bredagh battled all the way in the first-half, but Ballycran retained the edge and went into the break with a 1-12 to 0-9 lead thanks to the accuracy in front of the posts of Stuart Martin and Scott Nicholson.

The champions continued to stretch their lead after the break despite the best efforts of Aodhan Donaghy and Sean Hughes for Bredagh and ran out comfortable winners.

The final will now pit familiar foes against each other in an eagerly awaited clash. Although Portaferry beat Ballycran after a replay to take the 2020 title, Ballycran got their revenge in last year’s final, winning by two points in what was a thrilling contest.

Although this will be Portaferry’s sixth Down senior final in succession, they have only won one of those and have been on the receiving end of defeats to Ballycran three times. However, with the only team in this year’s championship still with a 100 per cent record, they will fancy themselves to capture the crown this time around.