Karl Bothwell hat-trick fires Clogher to bonus point win

WINGER Karl Bothwell scored a hat-trick of tries on Saturday as Clogher Valley earned their first bonus point victory in Energia All-Ireland League 2B.

Stephen Bothwell’s men stuttered into life somewhat, but after the half hour mark, UL Bohemians simply had no answer to the onslaught at The Cran as the Valley men ran in seven tries for an emphatic 44-12 victory, thanks to Bothwell’s hat-trick, two tries from Callum Smyton and touchdowns apiece by Aaron Crawford and Ewan Haire, while David Maxwell scored one penalty and a conversion and captain Paul Armstrong knocked over a conversion also.

Valley head coach, Stephen Bothwell was ‘delighted’ with his team’s performance for 50 minutes of the victory against a team who started the day two places above them in the table and he was more than pleased with the result as it showed him they can put teams to the sword in 2B.

“The first 25 minutes was a bit helter-skelter, you wouldn’t have known what we were going to do, throwing loose passes, things not sticking but we got a bit more scrum dominance and that kicked us into gear,” he observed.

“Things started to click into gear from then on, our backs started to move the ball better, we got a wee bit of space.

“We finished really well but it’s what we deserved. We played well in the second half and things stuck, so I’m delighted to get a performance and a scoreline like that because it shows we’re capable of doing that [in this division] against that team, who were third [before Saturday’s games].

“When you’re in this league and you’re winning one score games like we did against Malone and Galwegians, and even against the likes of Wanderers when they are tight and can go any way, to get a performance like that and to know if we play like that against teams we can do that to teams is really, really nice.”

Saturday’s triumph has moved Clogher up to fourth in the table ahead of a first derby clash of the season against Dungannon at Stevenson Park where they will face a home side who have enjoyed a consistent start to the season.

And Bothwell believes the two in-form Tyrone outfits will produce ‘a hell of a game’ this coming weekend, particularly after both were victorious on Saturday past.

“It’s nice to get [the bonus point win over Bohs] and it sets us up for a real tussle next week,” he beamed. “We want to get a good contest against them and hopefully we’ll be in the battle set-piece wise so we can get enough ball to contest and get at them.

“I’ve looked to this one for a long time, I know it’s been coming around but they are going very, very well and their backs are very sharp too, so it will be a hell of a game!”