Tuesday 14 April 2009
LOUGHMACRORY 0 – 10 1 – 11 CLONOE
Seniors improve but county champions claim league points
The seniors gave a much improved performance from their opening league game but are still pointless on the Division 1 league table after suffering a four points home defeat to county champions Clonoe . The game was won and lost in the opening half when Loughmacrory failed to take advantage of the elements and went in six points down at the break. They opened the match brightly and surged forward time after time but despite wind advantage they failed to make it count blasting four wides in the first quarter in reply to a point from the visitors. Stephen Donaghy eventually found the range with a mighty effort from 45 metres and two minutes later Ronan Ward converted a free to put his team into the lead. The East Tyrone men levelled the affair in the twenty third minute but all the homesters could offer in reply was another wide before the O’Rahilly’s hit a purple patch with four points in five minutes to race into a five points lead. The Ward brothers Ronan and Enda hit points apiece but tragedy struck for the home side when Clonoe scored the only goal of the contest to bring a six points lead into the changing rooms at 1 – 07 to 0 – 04.
The St Teresa’s showed much more bite and spirit in the second half and three early points from Sean Paul Slane, Enda Ward and Stephen Donaghy had closed the gap to a manageable three points ten minutes into the second period. It was score for score during the next ten minutes as Slane and Ronan Ward pointed in reply to similar scores from the O’Rahilly’s but Loughmacrory, despite some valiant attacking football could never manage to reduce that gap below three points and the visitors had the final say when they broke forward to claim a four point win as the final whistle beckoned.
