Edendork exit the Championship at the hands of Ardboe

Ardboe 1-12 Edendork 0-10

AN historic night for the Dungannon Clarkes with their £2million redeveloped home at O’Neill Park staging its first floodlit Championship game proved to be a night to forget for their rivals from down the road, Edendork.

The St Malachy’s became the first team to exit the Senior Championship as they fell to a five point defeat to a slick and purposeful Ardboe on Thursday evening, the final scoreline doing scant justice to the Rossas overall control.

The fact the lough shore men hit eleven wides in contrast to their opponent’s more meagre tally of three underlines the fact that this victory could have been a lot more resounding.

Ardboe will be happy enough obviously with the outcome and the encouraging individual displays across the board from the Devlin brothers, Shay McGuigan, David Mulgrew and captain Michael O’Neill should give them plenty of cause for optimism looking ahead.

In contrast despite sporadic moments of class from their talismen Darren McCurry, Conn Kilpatrick and Niall Morgan, Edendork fell well short of expectations, though in mitigation they had two or three other key campaigners unable to feature.

A bumper crowd at this terrific venue witnessed a fairly cagey opening, though Mulgrew did swivel to fire Ardboe ahead inside twenty seconds.

The Rossas were playing with a strong wind at their backs in the first period, but they fell behind when Kilpatrick bulldozed up the centre to drill over, and Daire Conway tagged on a ‘mark’ after collecting McCurry’s pass.

A sharply taken equaliser from Shea Quinn was cancelled out when McCurry slipped over a free in the 12th minute, but for the subsequent quarter of an hour Ardboe wrested a tight grip down the spine of the pitch.

They hit five points on the bounce, several excellent wind-assisted efforts hoisted over from deep. O’Neill, Quinn and corner back Conor Devlin each took pop successfully to split the posts, before a quick fire Mulgrew brace (one ‘mark’) eased them ahead 0-7 to 0-3.

While it took a last gasp defensive tackle to deny Morgan a strike at goal, Edendork did belatedly find a new lease of life in the run-up to the interval, McCurry curling over a quality score and Fiachra Nelis doing likewise. (Half-time Ardboe 0-7 Edendork 0-5).

While another top notch McCurry point reduced the deficit still further on the restart, Ardboe maintained their poise and focus, even now facing into the elements, though a litany of wides didn’t help their cause.

Mulgrew and Shay McGuigan (free) handed them some breathing space again, before Morgan slotted over a ’45’ after his thunderous effort from distance was palmed behind his post by keeper Conall Quinn.

On 40 minutes came the only goal of the contest, with Mulgrew impeded by Donal Maneely inside the square. Even with Morgan taking up station between the sticks in place of regular Edendork keeper Dara Mallon, he couldn’t prevent O’Neill’s penalty finding the bottom left hand corner.

St Malachy’s were left facing a six point gap after McGuigan converted a close range free but even heading into the last ten minutes they looked strangely subdued.

Two scores from McCurry (one free) made it 1-10 to 0-9 but a tenacious Ardboe defence was in no mood to relinquish a goal, and further scores from sub Peter Devlin, with the fist, and McGuigan (free) put the issue beyond all doubt.

The Scorers

Ardboe

David Mulgrew (0-4,1m), Michael O’Neill (1-1), Shay McGuigan (0-3,3f), Shea Quinn (0-2), Conor Devlin, Peter Devlin (0-1 each)

Edendork

Darren McCurry (0-6,3f), Conn Kilpatrick, Fiachra Nelis (0-1 each), Niall Morgan (0-1, 45′), Daire Conway (0-1,m)