First half display is key for Drumragh

Drumragh 1-19   Eskra 1-9

A POWERFUL first half display from Drumragh helped set them up for a convincing victory at home to Eskra on Sunday in Division 3A as they made it three wins from four outings to stay in touch with leaders Clogher.

The Sarsfields had the ball in the net as early as the second minute from man of the match Daniel O’Neill and had 1-6 on the scoreboard before Eskra opened their account.

The visitors did add a couple of further scores but when the home side landed the last half a dozen points of the opening period it left them 1-13 to 0-4 in front and there was no way back for the Emmetts.

O’Neill opened the scoring straight from the throw in and when Drumragh won possession from the kick out they strung together a superb move involving Niall McCarney, Eoin Montgomery and O’Neill with the latter finishing in style to the back of the net. O’Neill, Montgomery, Brendan Quinn, Ronan Maguire and Niall McCarney all tagged on points before Conor O’Hagan opened Eskra’s account in the 11th minute.

Aaron Kelly hit a brace for the visitors with Cormac Hughes also on target before Drumragh assumed control again. Full forward Maguire kicked four points with Montgomery and Ben Monk both raising whistle flags to leave them virtually out of sight.

Rory Kinsella and McCarney swapped points on the restart before Monk added to Drumragh’s advantage with a superb score that came the full length of the field. Drumragh were well in control but then Eskra enjoyed their best spell of the game. In the 41st minute O’Hagan cut in from the right wing to fire home a goal and they added points from Eoin McCaffrey, Hughes and Finn Kelly.

That reduced the deficit to seven but in the final dozen minutes they were to add just a Kelly point. Drumragh moved the ball at pace and they tagged on points from Malachy McManus, Montgomery, Orn Devlin and McCarney to win comfortably in the end.

Scorers

Drumragh: Ronan Maguire 0-5, Daniel O’Neill 1-2, Eoin Montgomery 0-3, Niall McCarney 0-3 (2F), Ben Monk 0-2, Malachy McManus 0-2, Brendan Quinn 0-1, Oran Devlin 0-1

Eskra: Conor O’Hagan 1-1, Aaron Kelly 0-3, Cormac Hughes 0-2 (1F), Rory Kinsella 0-1, Eoin McCaffrey 0-1, Finn Kelly 0-1

Teams

Drumragh: Sean O’Doherty, Carraig McKenna, Barry Fitzgerald, Alex McGlinchey, Malachy McManus, Michael Roche, Oran Devlin, Niall McCarney, Eoin Montgomery, Brendan Quinn, Daniel O’Neill, Patrick Colgan, Niall Maguire, Ronan Maguire, Ben Monk. Subs: Conor Gormley for Quinn, Lorcan McGrath for McManus

Eskra: Daire McCarroll, Eoin McKenna, Conor Hackett, Cathal Hackett, Luke Kelly, Niall Marlow, Patrick Irvine, Eoin McCaffrey, Cathal Arkinson, Aaron Kelly, Finn Kelly, Conor O’Hagan, Cormac Hughes, Thomas Meegan, Rory Kinsella. Subs: Martyin McGinley for Irvine, Darragh Maguire for Kelly, Cormac Arkinson for Cathal Hackett

Referee: Kieran Eannetta, Omagh