Roes cruise through
Brackaville's Sean Corr looses his Drumreagh marker for a fine score during last Thursday night's Junior Championship clash at Cookstown.mm31-302sr
Brackaville experienced little difficulty in booking a meeting with their namesakes, Owen Roes, when they cantered to victory over Drumragh in their Junior championship preliminary round tie at Paddy Cullen Park in Cookstown on Thursday, writes Kevin Kelly.
The Roes went into the game boasting a perfect record in the league and in truth there was an air of inevitability about the outcome from the moment Sarsfields keeper Andrew Maguire gifted Cahir McGuinness a fifth minute goal. The winners greeted the short whistle 1-7 to 0-3 in front and at that stage it was only a question of what the winning margin would be.
The joint league leaders played some superb football throughout as they moved the ball with purpose and at pace and quite simply their opponents couldn’t live with them. Sean Anderson was outstanding at full back with Tomas Corey and Conor Gillis others to catch the eye in defence while at midfield Martin Gervin was outstanding finishing the game as top scorer with half a dozen points to his credit. Up front teenager Che O’Donnell caused panic in the Sarsfields defence every time he touched the ball with Ciaran Gervin and Gary Ferguson to the fore as well.
Drumragh went into the tie second from bottom of the table and they never threatened an upset from the moment they leaked that early goal.
Chris O’Doherty, Gavin Quinn, Gareth Starrs and Martin Taggart all battled manfully for them but on the night they were always fighting a losing battle.
While there is no doubt that much tougher ties lie ahead, Brackaville nonetheless sent out a signal that they are genuine title contenders this season.
It was midfielder Gervin who opened the scoring before Brackaville grabbed that early goal when full forward Cahir McGuinness was on hand to finish to the net from close range after keeper Maguire had dropped a shot from midfielder Rian McHugh. Quinn then opened Drumragh’s account with a fine score but that was soon cancelled out by O’Donnell who showed the Sarsfields defence a clean pair of heels before fisting over the bar.
Taggart and Starrs both weighed in with Drumragh scores, but it was a faster Brackaville side who continued to dictate the pace with Gervin landing two frees as well as a point from play with Ferguson also on target to leave them well in control by the break.
Taggart reduced the deficit on the restart but any thoughts of a Drumragh comeback were quickly dispelled with Gervin knocking over another couple of frees.
Brackaville were on top throughout the field and as their opponents went twelve minutes without a score they flourished in front off the posts.
Substitute duo Joe Rafferty and Sean McNally both made immediate impacts with points apiece before the hard working Ciaran Gervin converted a long range free.
Taggart ended Drumragh’s barren spell with his third point of the night but in the closing minutes Brackaville finished the game in style with quality scores from Ferguson and O’Donnell as they strolled to an emphatic fifteen point success.
Brackaville – Damien O’Neill, Dara McGuinness, Sean Anderson, Peter O’Hagan, Tomas Corey, Conor Gillis, Darren Hughes, Martin Gervin, Rian McHugh, Ciaran Gervin, Sean Corr, Paddy Gervin, Che O’Donnell, Cahir McGuinness, Gary Ferguson. Subs - Sean McNally for Corr, Conor McStravick for McHugh, Joe Rafferty for Cahir McGuinness, Mickey McGeary for Paddy Gervin
Scorers – Martin Gervin 0-6, Che O’Donnell 0-4, Gary Ferguson 0-3, Cahir McGuinness 1-0, Ciaran Gervin 0-2, Sean Corr 0-1, Sean McNally 0-1, Joe Rafferty 0-1
Drumragh – Andrew Maguire, David Chism, Chris O’Doherty, Sean McGoldrick, Barry McLaughlin, Sean O’Neill, Barry Kirwan, Gavin Quinn, Gareth Starrs, Liam Quinn, Martin Taggart, Sean McGale, Shane Cleary, Cathal Gallagher, Brendan Drumm. Subs – Tommy Murphy for Drumm, Martin Lowry for Chism, Mark McConnell for Cleary
Scorers – Martin Taggart 0-3, Gavin Quinn 0-1, Gareth Starrs 0-1, Liam Quinn 0-1
Referee – Hugo Devine, Owen Roes
Attendance – 300, approximately
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Weather for Dungannon
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
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