Bredagh 1-11 v Loughinisland 1-11
A game in which Bredagh would certainly have taken a draw before a ball was kicked ended up like a point lost as they let slip a 1-11 to 0-09 lead in six minutes of injury time.
Loughinisland raced into a two point lead from the boot of Aaron McClements in the first few minutes, it was a further seven minutes before Loughinisland’s next score from Stefan Mason. Bredagh’s first score came in the 14th minute courtesy of midfielder Benny Hasson and Bryan Rice followed this with a point and a goal inside a minute to put the city team two points ahead (1-02 to 0-3). Conor Megoran chipped over a 25 metre free in the 21st minute and Donal Hughes scored his first point of the game with a left footed effort after an initial turnover by his brother Cormac in defence to begin the attack. Dan Gordan thumped over a long range effort in the 24th minute to reduce the arrears to the minimum, before Michael Robinson got the last Bredagh score of the half with a classy point to leave it 1-04 to 0-05.
The second half was 6 minutes old when the influential Niall Mullholland was black carded for innocuous looking tackle, a minute later Bryan Rice notched over a point for the home team and Donal Hughes followed this up a minute later with a free kick from close to the side line. Substitute Sean Blaney stroked over a splendid point on the 40th minute to stretch Bredagh’s lead to 5 points (1-07 to 0-5). Loughinisland began to exert pressure on the Bredagh defence with Conor Megoran scoring three points from frees in a four minute spell to reduce the lead to 2 points (1-07 to 0-08).
Bredagh had another purple patch and Cormac Hughes caressed over a point with his instep in the 49th minute, a minute later Bryan Rice took his tally to 1-04 after a tidy foot pass from substitute Donal McKegney. Megoran scored his fifth point of the game from a free in the 52nd minute to leave three points the difference (1-09 to 0-09). Donal Hughes scored another free in the 56th minute and Benny Hasson fired over his second point of the game after a powerful run in the 60th minute to leave five points in it (1-11 to 0-9).
With the game in injury time Bredagh looked like favourites to see the game out, especially after Odhran Devlin pulled off a great reflex save in the 61st minute, but to their credit, Loughinisland refused to give up and Aaron McClements kicked over a point in the 62nd minute and added another point from play in the 63rd minute. Then in the 66th minute Dan Gordan desperately made the most of an over zealous tackle to convince referee Ronan Barry to award a spot kick, up stepped John McCarthy to dispatch the penalty low and hard into the bottom corner to give the visitors a draw 1-11 to 1-11, the grimaces etched on the Bredagh players said it all as they left the field of play.
Parador Man of the Match: Donal Hughes
Bredagh: Odhran Devlin, Conall Tolland, Declan O’Hara, Chris Savage, Michael Magee, Emmett Costello, Niall Kelly, Cormac Hughes (0-01), B Hasson (0-02) Michael Robinson (0-01), Niall Mulholland, Kealan Devlin, Bryan Rice (1-04), Donal Hughes (0-03, 0- 2 frees), Conor Francis.
Subs: Sean Blaney (0-01) for N. Mulholland (36); Donal McKegney for M Magee (44th min); Michael Woods for K Devlin (57th min); Conall O’Rawe; Nicholas McCaffery and Feargal Nolan
Blood Sub: Sean Blaney for Donal Hughes (24-30)
Black card: N Mulholland replaced by Sean Blaney (36)
Loughinisland scorers: Conor Megoran (No 15) 0-05, 0-5 frees; Aaron McClements (No 14) 0-4, 0-1 free; John McCarthy 1-0 (penalty); Dan Gordan (No 8) 0-1; Stefan Mason (No 10) 0-1.
Yellow cards: P Meegoran (33) D Gordan (45)
Referee: Ronan Barry
