AIB Ulster Club Senior Football Championship: Ballinderry (Derry) 0-14 – 0-10 Clonoe (Tyrone)
Stephen Doherty reports from Celtic Park
Ballinderry progressed to the QF of the Ulster Senior Club Championship with a convincing 4 point win over Tyrone champions Clonoe, at Celtic Park on Sunday.
Still hurting from their first round defeat at the hands of Errigal Ciaran at this stage last year, the home side began the game with the greater urgency. Within 20 seconds of the throw-in Aaron Devlin was dissecting the posts for the game's opening score. Points from Ryan Bell and Darren Lawn soon followed to give Ballinderry a 3 point lead after just 6 minutes and threatening to put Clonoe to the sword.
The visitors first disturbed the scoreboard in the 10th minute by way of an excellent Daniel McNulty point. Ballinderry captain Conor Nevin increased his side's lead soon after before a Connor McAliskey free reduced Clonoe's deficit to 2 points. Ballinderry began dominating proceedings with 3 unanswered points from brothers Collie & Aaron Devlin and a wonderfully struck effort from Daniel McKinless.
The O'Rahilly’s were just about managing to keep the game alive and points from PJ Lavery and another free from McAliskey brought the visitors to within a goal of levelling the scores. A fine effort from the evergreen Conleith Gilligan saw Ballinderry go in at half-time leading 0-8 to 0-4.
Clonoe had little answer to Ballinderry's bountiful attacking options with all 6 of their forwards scoring by the interval. That said the Tyrone champions dug in and narrowed the gap to a couple of points with Lavery and McAliskey again raising the umpires flags.
By this stage the heavens had opened and the floodlights were on early at Celtic Park. Ryan Bell seemed to thrive in these adverse conditions and scored back to back points from open play. But again Clonoe fought back with points from Ryan O'Neill and 2 frees from the deadly accurate Daniel McNulty.
Gilligan and Aaron Devlin again chipped in points for the Shamrocks before Bell scored the point of the game with a magnificent effort from all of 60 metres. What a player he is becoming. Collie Devlin contributed Ballindery's final point of the game with his left foot, before McNulty again pointed for Clonoe from a free to leave the final score 0-14 to 0-10 to the Derry men.
Ballinderry's man-of-the-match Aaron Devlin was a happy but relieved man at the final whistle. "We knew we were going to be in a battle today. Damian Cassidy always has his teams up to play against Derry teams and Clonoe are a hard outfit to play against". The talented half-back is hoping Ballinderry's 'golden generation' can once again taste Ulster glory – "Normally we look at Ulster as a bonus because Derry is that hard to win. Last year was a real heart-break – we didn't play well against Errigal. But this year we've knuckled down, we got to watch the Clonoe/Carrickmore game and learned a thing or 2 too".
Ballinderry now face Monaghan champions Scotstown in the quarter-final at Clones on 3rd November.
Ballinderry: Michael Conlon, Ryan Scott, Conor Nevin(C)(0-1), Michael McIver, Raymond Wilson, Gareth McKinless, Darren Lawn(0-1), Kevin McGuckin, James Conway, Daniel McKinless(0-1), Aaron Devlin(0-3), Dermot McGuckin, Coilin Devlin(0-2), Ryan Bell(0-4), Conleith Gilligan(0-2). Subs: Enda Muldoon, Darren Conway, Martin Harney, Kevin Moss McGuckin.
No comments:
Post a Comment