Moortown finish strongly against Beragh

  Beragh 0-11 Moortown 3-9

MOORTOWN belatedly seized control of this particular contest to claim what turned out to be a comfortable enough victory in Sunday’s Division Two clash away to Beragh.

The side were deadlocked heading into the final quarter but St Malachy’s rattled through 1-6 without reply to take another step in their quest towards the promotion play-offs and a possible league title with just two rounds of action remaining.

All but a single point of Moortown’s final tally of 3-9 came from play but they were certainly made to work for their victory by a Beragh side who are still looking over their shoulders with their league campaign nearing its conclusion.

Moortown surged into a 2-1 to 0-1 lead with only seven minutes gone but the Red Knights incrementally played their way back into the contest before Moortown, aided by a significant enough wind advantage, stretched their legs late on with Shea Lawn delivering the coup de grace with a soccer-style finish to the net two minutes from injury time.

The victors will be happy enough with their day’s work, but it certainly wasn’t all plain-sailing and there were long stretches where their attacking unit was struggling to click into gear.

Gaps started to appear, however, in the closing stages and they took full advantage with some fine scores while Beragh found themselves tied up at the other end of the pitch by a Moortown defence spearheaded by Christopher McGuigan and Tarlach Quinn, who made three telling defensive interventions in the third quarter alone, a critical juncture where both sides vied for supremacy.

It was Moortown that landed the early blows with two quickfire goals. In the first instance, Paul Quinn couldn’t not miss after the ball was presented on a plate, and in the second Sean Paul Corr interchanged passes with Tarlach Quinn who did the needful with an assured finish to the net.

Beragh had been cut open, twice, but they settled themselves with a scattering of frees and two excellent points from play with Conor Owens and Oran Treacy leaving a more manageable 2-2 to 0-5 deficit with 19 minutes gone.

Moortown responded with a fine long-range point from full-back Christopher McGuigan but they were also caught for steps on two occasions against a Beragh side that had shored up their defence. The home side nailed the last three scores of the half with Marty Rodgers and Owens finding the target from the deadball, leaving only the bare minimum between the teams at the interval.

The opening exhanges of the second-half were cagey enough with respective forays forward coming to nought until Moortown’s Shaun Conway got the scoreboard going again. Beragh were enjoying their fair share of possession and drew level with two frees from Conor Owens, who himself was fouled on the latter occasion.

The Red Knights were forcing turnovers and producing some enterprising football, but as fate would have it they would only muster a single score for the remainder of the contest, a solitary free with the last kick of the game.

Almost imperceptibly, Moortown began to take control and the scores started flowing. Lawn found his range from the dead ball, Connor Quinn, a lively half-back, coolly slotted a point and Lawn struck again, this time from play, after a lung-bursting run forward from their full-back McGuigan.

There was more to come with Karl O’Hagan getting his name on the scoresheet while the increasingly influential Lawn banged over another point from play during a protracted spell where everything seemed to go right for the St Malachy’s.

That left the scoreboard reading 2-9 to 0-10 in their favour with 54 minutes remaining and any rapidly diminishing chances of a comeback evaporated in their entirety when Moortown scored a fine breakway goal, Shea Lawn eating up the grass before slipping the ball soccer-style to the net. There was no way back for the Red Knights though they kept on plugging away to the final whistle.

THE SCORERS
Beragh
Conor Owens (0-5, 4f) Martin Rodgers (0-3f), Oran Treacy, Matthew McSorley and Craig Sweeney (0-1 each)

Moortown
Shea Lawn (1-2, 0-1f), Tarlach Quinn and Paul Quinn (1-0 each), Connor Quinn (0-2), Christopher McGuigan, Sean Kelly, Blaine Ryan, Shaun Conway and Karl O’Hagan (0-1 each)