Objective achieved for Clogher Valley

CLOGHER Valley achieved their objective of picking up five points on the road at bottom side, Malahide on Saturday, but they certainly didn’t do it in style.

Stephen Bothwell’s team got through the encounter, rather than taking it by the scruff of the neck as two Callum Smyton tries and one apiece from Jake Woods and Paul Armstrong, allied to three David Maxwell conversions saw them past a home side who belied their relegation-threatened status for periods.

“It wasn’t a performance we’re proud of,” Bothwell acknowledged. “They were fighting for their life, they move the ball well and played some good stuff.

“We got a couple of yellow cards [Luke Russell and Joel Busby] which didn’t help us, so I’m delighted to get out of here with five points, because everyone else, Dungannon and Rainey, did too.”

The importance of the five points will become clear over the next fortnight when Clogher host both second placed Dungannon and fourth placed Rainey in two key encounters that could hold the key to their own promotion hopes.

At present, Clogher are third in the table, eight points behind Dungannon and four ahead of Rainey and Bothwell knows the importance of the two fixtures.

“That’s as good as it’s been, getting the five points with a middling performance, but the boys are well grounded for next week,” he observed.

“It’s behind us now, so we’ll go on for the next one, which is massive. We’ll put in huge preparation, hopefully put in the performance and get on the right end of the result.”