CLOUGHANEELY PICKED UP a valuable and much needed two points as they welcomed Naomh Columba to Páirc Naomh Fionán on what was a wet and miserable Sunday afternoon.
Cloughaneely 1-14 Naomh Columba 1-6
It was a tough battle between both teams for the first half. Ryan Gillespie knocked over the first point of the day for Naomh Columba in the sixth minute and this was quickly backed up by a second point for the visitors from Pauric Cunningham.
Although Naomh Columba came strong on the attack, Cloughaneely managed to keep them scoreless for a period of 20 minutes in the first half at which point Cloughaneely then pulled ahead.
[adrotate group=”45″]Two points from Shaun McGuire either side of one from Kevin Mulhern saw them draw level with Naomh Columba.
The real damage for Naomh Columba came in the form of a Cloughaneely goal in the 21st minute where Shaun McGuire neatly off-loaded to Darren McGeever who found the back of the net.
Cloughaneely then immediately won the subsequent kick-out and Darren Ferry registered Cloughaneely’s fourth point of the day. Ferry then notched up his second point of the day in the 26th minute.
Naomh Columba attempted to regain some ground in the dying mins of the 1st half, when Jamie McNern registered a point. Pauric O’Neill then found himself in on goal but was denied by Cloughaneely Keeper Ciaran Gallagher just before the half time whistle.
It was 1-5 to 0-3 to the home team at the break.
Cloughaneely were the dominant side for much of the second half as Naomh Columba fought to narrow the gap.
Cloughaneely were on the attack straight from 2nd half throw in and McGeever knocked over two points in quick succession, one from a free. Ryan Gillespie, who was Naomh Columba’s top scorer of the day knocked over his second point from play in the 32nd minute.
Again, the home-side held Naomh Columba scoreless for a period of 20 mins in the 2nd half; when Cloughaneely widened the margin further with points from John McGarvey, Kevin Mulhern, Lee O’Brien, Darren McGeever and Shaun McGuire.
The visitors also struggled with Ciaran McGeady’s speedy breaks out of defence. Naomh Columba found themselves 1-13 – 0-4 down with seven mins of normal time remaining; they resiliently worked the ball into the goal mouth where Gavin McGinley managed to get a touch to it after a goal mouth scramble to secure a goal for the visitors in the 53rd minute.
Ryan Gillespie then managed to follow this up with two points in quick succession however time was not on Naomh Columba’s side.
[adrotate group=”68″]Cloughaneely: Ciaran Gallagher, Ciaran McGeady, Paul McFadden, John Harley, Kevin Mulhern (0-2), Paddy Cannon, Ronan Cannon, Michael McCausland, Lee O’Brien (0-1), John McGarvey (0-1), Darren Ferry (0-2), Darren McGeever (1-4) Cillian Gallagher, Shaun McGuire (0-4), Eugene McGuire.
Naomh Columba: Paddy Byrne, Barry Carr, Kieran McBrearty, Philip Doherty, Kevin McNern, Pauric Ward, Stephen Jones , Michael McGuire, Ryan Gillespie (0-4, 1f), Pauric Cunningham (0-1), Ryan McNern, Gavin McGinley (1-0), Paul Doherty, Pauric O’Neill, Jamie McNern (0-1).
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