Clogher maintain promotion push with thumping victory

CLOGHER Valley showed no ill-effects from their derby defeat to Dungannon last time out when they thumped Malahide 65-26 at The Cran on Saturday to move just two points away from the promotion play-off places in Energia All-Ireland League 2B.

Stephen Bothwell’s men went into the clash as heavy favourites against the division’s bottom side and that tag was well deserved as they ran in nine tries from Callum Smyton, Matthew Bothwell, captain Paul Armstrong (2), Tommi Coulter, David Stinson (2), Aaron Dunwoody and a penalty try to seal a 39 point margin of victory.

It was Clogher’s second try scoring bonus point win of the season, their second in three games, after they beat UL Bohemians 44-12 just a few weeks earlier, and head coach Stephen Bothwell was more than pleased to see his team improve their points difference in the table.

“It’s put a bit of respect on our points difference,” he beamed. “We were happy with the win and the margin of it, but we weren’t taking them lightly, even though they are bottom of the table, because it was around this time last year we screwed up against Omagh and it was something similar – we were going well and they weren’t.

“But our defence was very good, we turned them over and got some good turnover ball and we went well with it. There was a lot of good stuff, some excellent scores. It was an overall good performance, very pleasing. I’m delighted.”

As well as being pleased with his side’s overall performance against Sligo, Bothwell was also delighted by the efforts of a couple of younger squad members – winger Jake Woods, prop James Morrison and second row Brent Scott – who all made telling contributions on the day.

“We had a lot of different boys in today,” he confirmed. “We had a couple of injuries and we had a couple of boys who I wanted to give a go and I felt this was a good game for that.

“They came out really well and played some really good rugby, so I’m delighted, because I know they can play a role this season. It was good.”

Clogher’s next game is away to Sligo, which Bothwell knows won’t be anything like as easy as Saturday’s victory over Malahide but he knows how important victory will be if they want to remain in the hunt for a third successive promotion.

And with results going somewhat against his side at the weekend, as Rainey and Malone both won to keep the pressure on from the chasing pack, while UL Bohs won to maintain a narrow gap in fourth, another win is paramount for Clogher ahead of another break in fixtures before they host third placed Skerries on December 7th and visit Rainey on December 14th ahead of the Christmas break.

“It [the Sligo game] is huge if we want to stay in contention,” he acknowledged. “It won’t be an easy place to go and we’re expecting a tough tussle.

“It will be interesting and it will give us something to work on.”