Bredagh 1-9 Longstone 1-13
It may have been the very first ‘Friday night lights’ for Bredagh senior men’s team but it definitely wasn’t Friday night delights as Longstone went back down the road with a victory in this ACFL Division 2 clash.
A historic occasion, with the seniors making their competitive debut under the floodlights on the new artificial pitch, was less 3G and more OMG as a succession of curious refereeing decisions and stout Longstone defending didn’t help an already off-kilter home team.
In truth the Harps were second best for most of the dark, rainy, cold evening, which had a distinct air of ‘end of season’ to it.
Bredagh struggled throughout to make the most of their possession, Longstone’s well-marshalled defence closing down space and forcing errors.
Wides and shots dropped short were to prove costly, and where Bredagh attacks too often ran aground, Longstone cut through to threaten goals much more easily.
Tommy McElroy opened the scoring after just 20 seconds, and while Odhran Devlin saved a palmed effort at goal in the second minute, the next score came from Longstone seven minutes later. Former county star Mark Poland supplied it, finishing a rebound to the net after Devlin had saved a shot on goal.
A minute later the visitors almost doubled their tally but Donal McKegney cleared a goalbound shot off the line.
On nine minutes Bredagh had their own chance of goal but, after a mazy powerful run by Conor Francis and deft pass to Conall O’Rawe, the latter’s shot just clipped the bar to go over, leaving it 1-0 to 0-2.
Longstone kicked on to establish a 1-4 to 0-2 lead after 18 minutes, but a great move involving Donal Hughes and O’Rawe saw Tim Cunningham ghost in for a goal in the 20th minute.
Michael Ireland extended Longstone’s lead, but points from Paddy McLaughlin and O’Rawe made it 1-5 to 1-4. However this was as close as things got, as a couple of free-kicks weren’t capitalised upon and Longstone punished through scores from Ireland and midfielder Conor Poland.
Behind 1-7 to 1-4 at the break, Bredagh needed a fast start to the second half but it was their opponents who bagged the first two points.
O’Rawe did reduce the deficit with a great score on 37 minutes, added to by another from substitute Bryan Rice.
But a comeback never really threatened, a combination of some bizarre decisions from the man in the middle (including what looked a clear foul on raiding wing-back Brendan Gallen in front of the posts), and a failure to penetrate a composed Longstone rearguard seeing the game largely peter out in the last quarter of a largely forgettable encounter.
Parador man of the match: John McKenna
Bredagh: O Devlin, P McLaughlin (0-1), M Woods, D McKegney, B Gallen, O Costello, T McElroy (0-1), C Francis, J McKenna, T Cunningham (1-0), K Devlin, M Robinson, C O’Rawe (0-3), D Hughes (0-3, three frees), S Blaney. Subs: M Hamilton for McElroy, L O’Keefe for Blaney, C Hughes for K Devlin, B Rice (0-1) for O’Rawe, C Savage for McKegney.
Longstone scorers: Michael Ireland (0-7, three frees), Mark Poland (1-2, two frees), Conor Poland (0-2), Conor Shields and their No. 4 (they didn’t give numbers on their teamsheet) (0-1).
Ref: Brian Higgins
