By 
CLOGHER Valley improved their bid for a place in the promotion play-offs on Saturday when they earned a try-scoring bonus point Energia All-Ireland League 2B victory over Navan at The Cran.
Stephen Bothwell’s men had trained 15-5 after 38 minutes but they closed the gap before the interval before taking control of proceedings in the second half to run out comfortable winners in the end.
Callum Smyton had put Clogher into an early third minute lead with an unconverted try before touch downs from Gary Faulkner and Mark Coen, one of which was converted by Mark Farrell, who also added a penalty, to give Navan a 10 point lead.
But Clogher responded well with man of the match Matthew Bothwell dotting down on the stroke of half-time before David Maxwell converted to make it 12-15 at the break.
After the restart, the Valley men grabbed the lead on 45 minutes when Maxwell converted Tommi Coulter’s score before Taine Haire and Bothwell added further tries, both of which were converted by Maxwell to leave the home side well clear at the final whistle.
And while pleased to see his side come good in the end, Bothwell admits they still aren’t firing on all cylinders but they still have ‘a real opportunity’ to cement their place in the promotion picture before the Christmas break.
“We got the bonus point and it was nice to get it,” admitted the Clogher head coach. “First half, we didn’t play well at all. We did stupid things to give them good field position – the thing we preach about all the time!
“The determination to keep them [the opponent] out is no different, but it’s just silly mistakes, unforced errors, are giving them field position, which is what’s annoying.
“But it puts us back in the [play-off] picture, so we need to get after Skerries next week and then there’s a big game against Buccaneers. But we’ll concentrate on Skerries first and we’ll see how we go after that.
“We have a real opportunity.”
Their latest victory, their first at home this season and second on the bounce, has given all involved in the first XV a massive boost and the momentum built could be key going forward.
“It’s huge [to have momentum at this stage of the season] because we play these three teams [Navan, Skerries and Buccaneers] back-to-back [either side of Christmas] so you need that bit of positivity moving round to the other side of Christmas,” Bothwell observed.
