Derrylaughan dash Owen Roes hopes with strong second half showing

Derrylaughan 1-15  Owen Roes 2-5

DERRYLAUGHAN belatedly found their shooting boots as they powered across the finish line in Saturday’s Intermediate Championship quarter-final win over Owes Roes at Pomeroy.

It’s fair to say that victors were their own worst enemies on the attacking front, miscuing time-and-time again – including that most heinous of offences, firing multiple shots straight into the grateful hands of Owen Roes keeper Ryan McShane.

They also coughed up two fairly avoidable goals, and when Cathal McShane brought Owen Roes level with a quarter of an hour remaining, it looked like an upset could be on the cards.

It didn’t work out that way, however. A Tomas Carney goal acted as the catalyst for Derrylaughan taking almost total control of the contest in the closing stages to seal a Loughshore derby against Moortown in a huge semi-final clash in a fortnight’s time.

The Kevin Barrys flew out of the traps in the first-half, racing into a four-point to no score lead with James Donnelly, Carney. Ciaran Quinn and Shane Scullion finding the target early on.

It looked like Owen Roes were in for a long afternoon, though they got their account up and running when McShane, double teamed for much of the contest, claimed a ‘mark’ under pressure and popped the ball over the bar.

Absent the injured Tony Devine in the middle, it was always going to be a tall order for Owen Roes to win this one and they fell four points in arrears again when Carney converted a free after the hugely influential Brian Kennedy was fouled.

The two teams traded further scores before the Leckpatrick men conjured up a goal, Conall McCormack’s effort at a point dropping short and Niall McAleer getting there first to palm the ball to the net.

That left only two points between the teams but Derrylaughan landed the final two scores of the half via Donnelly and Kennedy to leave the scoreboard 0-8 to 1-2 at the interval.

In truth, they should have been further in front but their shot selection was poor, as acknowledged by their manager, former Antrim footballer Kevin Niblock after the game.

And while they landed a couple of early points the other side of the half-time whistle, they were still misfiring in front of the posts while Owen Roes pounced down the other end for their second goal of the game, Mickey Dooher making no mistake after the ball was put on a plate for him by Ronan McNulty five minutes into the second half.

With their confidence growing, Cathal McShane scored his second from play to leave the sides level with 20 minutes remaining, but as it happened they would muster only one more score for the remainder of the contest – that being a late Mickey Dooher point that crept inside the posts with the game as good as over.

Derrylaughan needed to show more composure in front of the posts and their sub Fergal McAliskey showed some of his teammates how it’s done with a fine point from an acute enough angle.

The impressive Tomas Carney moved them into a 1-11 to 2-4 lead with 48 minutes on the clock and after Carney’s goal they rattled off a flurry of scores as they made sure of victory.

In all, they scored 1-5 in the final quarter with Owen Roes only mustering a single point in reply, and they’ll be happy with the contribution of their subs that were thrown into the mix, including Danny Ball, who landed the final point of the game in injury time.

All told, it wasn’t an entirely straightforward day at the office but a win’s a win and the men from the Washing Bay have found themselves one step away from a place in the Intermediate Championship final showdown.

The Scorers
Derrylaughan
Tomas Carney (1-6, 4f), Brian Kennedy (0-2), Mark Robinson (0-2, 1m), Shane Scullion, Ciaran Quinn, Danny Ball, Fergal McAliskey and Liam Gervin (0-1 each)

Owen Roes
Cathal McShane (0-4, 1m, 1f), Mickey Dooher (1-1), Niall McAleer (1-0)