Shea steals the derby plaudits

12 July 2017

BAILE an Locha stayed top of the table following this industrious win over Castlewellan in Drumnaquoile.

Baile an Locha made a strong start and were on top for the most part of the first half with Shea Croskery in imperious form with some outrageous point scoring giving him a return of 0-8 by the time the short whistle went.

Caolan Burns opened the scoring for the Loch with a superb point before he was black carded only five minutes in with the impressive Damian McMullan replacing him.

Goals from Andrew Gilmore, Eoin Lundy and Oran Flanagan with Tiarnan Noade clipping over a free and Eoin Moag firing over from play, gave the Loch a double figures lead at the interval.

The Town were vastly improved from the previous meeting of the two sides and grabbed a breakaway goal for their first score after the Loch went 1-5 ahead, but a great defensive display from Haynes, McMullan and Magorrian kept the Town forwards largely quiet throughout the first half.

In the last 10 minutes of the first half the Town fashioned three more points and grabbed another goal from the penalty spot. Just before half-time the Town ‘keeper received a black card for hauling down Flanagan as he was through on goal. Half-time Baile an Locha 3-11 Castlewellan 2-3

Midfielder Oran Flanagan sent over his first of four

frees three minutes after the restart, but in the following six minute spell the Town enjoyed a period of ascendancy to hit 2-1 to leave just four points the difference.

The Loch had to up their game again and great fielding from Lundy and Moag provided the platform for them to re-group and substitute Tiernan McCullough helped the defence in restricting the Town to only 1-2 over the remainder of the game with the Loch pulling away in the final quarter, scoring 11 points.

Croskery got his ninth point of the game, all from play, with Noade (0-4, two frees), Gilmore (0-2), Flanagan (0-3, three frees) and Damian McMullan (0-1) all registering scores.

An evenly matched second half hour with Castlewellan asking serious questions of the Loch and they responded

positively, but it was the strong first half performance that ultimately was the difference in the end.

Baile an Locha had standout performers in McMullan and Magorrian in defence and Shea Croskery in attack, with Moag, Lundy, Flanagan and Noade all contributing with industry and scores.

Castlewellan had a star performer in McVeigh with excellent performances from McGuinness, Travers, Maginn and O’Toole.

Baile an Locha: F Murphy, R McMullan, C Haynes, J Matthews, R Quinn, C Magorrian, O Flanagan (1-4, 4f), E Lundy (1-0), S Croskery (0-9), E Moag (0-1), T Noade (0-5, 2f), C Burns (0-1), A Gilmore (1-2). Subs: D McMullan (0-1), T McCullough, O Cassidy-Dawson, P McCann, A Lenaghan.

Castlewellan: M Rice, D Cunningham, C Caldwell, C McCabe, O O’Toole, C McKibben, J McVeigh, C Stratton, D Tumelty, M Muldoon, R McGuinness, E Maginn, E Travers. Subs: B Brannigan, S Kearney, D Toner, B Corrigan, D McVeigh.

Baile an Locha 3-23

Castlewellan 5-6

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