Advantage Burt in Junior
Championship
22.07.10
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Burt...2-8 Robert Emmet’s...0-3 by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent, at Hibernian Park IT'S first blood to Burt in the first round of the Junior A Championship after they turned in a fine second half performance to see off the challenge of Robert Emmet’s at Hibernian Park on Sunday. In a scrappy first half, Burt put in a massive shift in defence, where Seamus O’Donnell, Jonathan Downey and Paul O’Brien stood out, and the Castlefin side were unable to take advantage of the strong wind on their backs. The visitors led by 0-3 to 0-2 at the break, but the loss to injury of Emmet White – who had got all their scores in the first period – was a crushing blow. Have contained Emmet’s threat in the first half, Burt broke loose in the second half with goals from Ciaran Dowds and Dara Grant setting them up for a victory that was even more comfortable than the scoreline suggests. Indeed, were it not for some excellent saves from Simon McMenamin and a last gasp block from Brian Dooher, Burt’s second half goal tally could well have been higher. |
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Playing into the wind, Burt
opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Paul McHugh
broke forward from defence to split the posts. Paddy
McDermott doubled Burt’s tally with a 21st minute free
as stout Burt defending and poor forward play saw Robert
Emmet’s struggled to make their wind advantage count. It wasn’t until the 23rd minute that they finally got on the scoreboard through an Emmet White point from play. Two further White points, in the 29th and 35th minutes, saw the visitors take a one point lead into the half time break. But that lead was cancelled out within two minutes of the restart as Paddy McDermott pointed a free, and brother Enda, who the Robert Emmet’s |
defence struggled to deal
with all day, pointed from play. Emmet’s were struck a hammer blow seven minutes into the second half. Ciaran Dowds won a McMenamin kick out, exchanged a one-two with Paul McHugh and crashed an unstoppable shot from 25 yards into the top left corner to put Burt 1-4 to 0-3 ahead. That goal rocked Emmet’s and first McMenamin and then Dooher saved what looked like certain goals from Enda McDermott and Brian Sheerin. Enda McDermott converted a 45 before Dara Grant all but sealed the victory with a 45th minute goal. A long sideline ball into space from Dowds set off a foot race and Grant beat both his marker and the keeper to the ball. He tried to loft the ball soccer style over McMenamin, but the keeper parried it and Grant made no mistake at the second attempt. Further points from Paddy McDermott (2 frees) and Mark McGavigan sealed the deal and put Burt in pole position to advance to the quarter-finals. The sides are scheduled to meet in the second leg in Castlefin on the weekend of 7/8 August. Burt: Ciaran McDermott; Darren McLaughlin, Paul O’Brien, Jonathan Downey; Seamie O’Donnell, Mark McGavigan (0-1), Sean Murphy; Kevin McDermott, Ciaran Dowds (1-0); Paul McHugh (0-1), Martin Donaghey, Paddy McDermott (0-4, 4 frees); Dara Grant (1-0), Enda McDermott (0-2, 1 ’45), Brian Sheerin. Subs: Michael McHugh for S. Murphy. Robert Emmet’s: Simon McMenamin; Brian Dooher, Conor McConnell, Marcus Curran; Sean Coyle, Mickey McGlinchey, Paul McCauley; Brian Harvey, Dean McBrearty; Chris Bryson, Dominic McGlinchey, Ciaran McElchar; Emmet White (0-3, 1 free), Niall McConnell, Michael Lafferty. Subs: Enda O’Doherty for C. McElchar; Paul Harvey for E. White. For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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