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Buncrana breeze to derby win
03.06.11
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Buncrana...0-11 Carndonagh...0-8 BUNCRANA breezed to a three point victory over Inishowen rivals Carn on Saturday night. Ryan Bradley missed the game through illness, but it was Buncrana’s old guard – brothers Stephen and Paul McGonigle, full back Simon McGrory and centre forward Gavin McConnell – who stood tall and laid the foundations for victory. Carn depended good goalkeeping from Declan O’Donnell and frees from Donnacha Gallagher to stay in touch. The loss to injury early on of the influential Oliver McConalogue hampered Carn’s challenge and while they finished either half strongly, they never led over the hour and at the end couldn’t find the goal they needed to force a draw. Paul McGonigle pointed for Buncrana within the first minute but Carn responded with Gallagher winning and converting a free in the fourth minute. Odhran Doherty and Gallagher exchanged scores before Buncrana took charge, hitting three unanswered points (one each from Paul and Stephen McGonigle and Adrian Doherty) between the 17th and 25th minutes. Declan O’Donnell made a good save from Paul McGonigle midway through the first half when the former county midfielder found himself through one-on-one with the Carn stopper, but the keeper used his legs to beat away McGonigle’s shot. Paul McGonigle spent most of the match at full forward and proved an excellent target man for Buncrana: what balls he didn’t win he broke down to a nearby teammate. Carn were trying to use their wind advantage by playing long balls into the full forward line, but other than one chance that Mickey McLaughlin sclaffed wide after rounding the keeper, they never looked like threatening a goal. |
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Simon McGrory swept up all
before him, repeatedly breaking up Carn attacks, and he
was well supported by his corner backs Brendan McGee and
Calvin Jones. Two late points from Ronan O’Connor (an excellent effort from the left wing) and a Gallagher free saw Carn enter the half time break trailing by the minimum, 0-5 to 0-4. Buncrana bossed the second half, with McConnell, Odhran Doherty, Paul McGonigle (2), Oisin Doherty and Ronan Doherty all pointing before the 52nd minute, with Carn’s solitary response being a Donnacha Gallagher point from play. In between times, Carn keeper Declan O’Donnell had pulled off a fine save from Adrian Doherty while at the other end Ronan O’Connor was hustled out of it and couldn’t find space to swing a leg when the ball fell into his hands just three yards from the goal line and only the keeper to beat. |
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Trailing 0-11 to 0-5 with
five minutes remaining, Carn played their best football
of the night. Richie Cunningham pointed and two injury
time points from Gallagher, one a free and the other a
superb effort off the outside of his right foot that
curled into the wind and perfectly over the bar, reduced
the deficit to just three points, but they couldn’t
engineer another goal scoring chance and Buncrana took
the victory. That’s Buncrana’s third league win of the season while Carn’s remain relegation candidates with only an opening day victory over Naomh Colmcille to their credit after seven games. Buncrana: Alan Fletcher; Calvin Jones, Simon McGrory, Brendan McGee; Andy McLaughlin, Caolan McCann, Adrian McColgan; Odhran Doherty (0-2, 1’45), Christy Bell; Adrian Doherty (0-1), Gavin McConnell (0-1), Ronan Doherty (0-1); Paul McGonigle (0-4, 2f), Stephen McGonigle (0-1), Oisin Doherty (0-1). Sub: Carndonagh: Declan O’Donnell; Ronan O’Connor (0-1), Jerry Simpson, Michael Nelson; Dermot McGonagle, Paddy Nelson, Rory Ward; Oliver McConalogue, Richie Cunningham; Dominic Doherty (K), Cathal O’Kane, Gerard Doherty (K); Donnacha Gallagher (0-6, 4f), Joe Lafferty, Michael McLaughlin (M). Subs: Garvin McGrenra (0-1) for R. O’Connor (6 mins); Ronan O’Connor for O. McConalogue (11 mins); Ciaran O’Callaghan for R. O’Connor (50 mins); Stephen McLaughlin for D. Doherty (50 mins). Referee: M. Mulhern. For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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