Bredagh crowned champions

Bredagh crowned champions

28 September 2016

THE brilliance of deadly duo Donal Hughes and Alan Davidson sent An Riocht packing as Bredagh claimed their first ever IFC title at Pairc Esler on Sunday.

Make no mistake about it, the Belfast side were full value for their victory.

The pre-match hype surrounding An Riocht was exactly that — hype. The Kingdom woefully under-performed.

Star man Martin Clarke was well shackled throughout, even getting blocked down on four occasions.

Other influential players like Declan Doyle and Deaglan Morgan were peripheral figures.

Bredagh’s triumph was grounded in their phenomenal levels of fitness.

Even at the full time whistle they looked like they could go on for another ten minutes.

Their tenacity in the tackle and their willingness to work as a unit shone through.

Hughes and Davidson contributed 2-12 between them. This was a superb scoring return and the Kingdom defence could only look on with hopelessness.

Bredagh were flying out the traps early doors. Hughes and Davidson posted two trebles of points with big midfielder Joe Shields nabbing another score.

At this stage Conor Doyle was the only player to raise a cheer for An Riocht.

Bredagh were on top, but in a fast moving counter-attack the powerful Kory Colgan made his way to smash the top corner of Jack Duffin’s net and put three in it.

Bredagh’s response was clinical. Hughes took receipt of a wonderful pass and fed Brian Rice, who guided the ball past Brendan McVeigh.

This kicked into a gear a response from the Kingdom who scored 0-4 to Bredagh’s 0-1 in the lead-up to half-time.

The Belfast men led by two at the break and they kept on motoring in the third quarter.

Scores were exchanged by the sides on two further occasions as two points remained the difference.

An Riocht began to capitulate in the last 15 minutes. Their legs went while Bredagh had plenty left in tank.

Two goals and a point from Davidson and another brace from Hughes guided their team home.

In truth, it could have been a lot more, such was Bredagh’s dominance of the closing stages.

At the full time whistle there was delight for Jody Gormley’s men.

It was hard to fault any of their 

combatants. Hughes and Davidson will take the plaudits, but in Owen Costello, Declan O’Hara, Joe Shields and Emmett Costello, the Belfast club had true stars.

An Riocht were left ruing an underperformance. But in truth they weren’t allowed to perform. Bredagh were just too good.

Bredagh: J Duffin, O Costello, D O’Hara, C Savage, M Magee, E Costello, K Dornan, J Shields (0-1), C Hughes, M Robinson, A Davidson (2-4), C Francis, D Hughes (0-8, 4f), B Rice (1-0), P McLaughlin. Subs: S Blaney, N Kelly, C Toland, H Deazley.

An Riocht: B McVeigh, M Clarke, J O’Rourke, L McVeigh, J Cunningham, P Allen, C Doyle (0-1), R McAlinden (0-1), K Colgan (1-0), C Cole (0-1), Martin Clarke (0-2, 2f), D Morgan (0-1), R Cunningham, N McArdle (0-2, 1f), D Doyle (0-1).

Subs: C Killen (0-1), S Clarke, B Rodgers, A Sloan, D Doyle.

Bredagh 3-13

An Riocht 1-10

DOWN IFC FINAL