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Muff victorious in Burn Road
thriller
24.11.11
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McAleer’s men win the
battle of the Naomh Pádraigs by Dónal Campbell at Burn Road, Termon THERE were scenes of wild celebrations at Burn Road, Termon, on Sunday afternoon as Aidan McAleer’s Iskaheen side won the battle of the Naomh Pádraigs and, in the process, secured Division Three football in 2012. In a tense hard-fought promotion play-off with Lifford, the Iskaheen men overcame the handicap of losing their influential centre-half back Martin Duffy, who was red-carded on the stroke of half-time, and withstood a fierce second-half salvo from Lifford to deservedly run out winners and climb out of Donegal’s bottom tier for the first time in four years. It was the Inishowen men who blasted out of the blocks, hitting three unanswered points in the opening six minutes – Damian Diver, Mark Duffy and Charlie Molloy all splitting the posts. Kevin McBrearty opened Lifford’s account on seven minutes and the impressive Gary McGirr further narrowed the gap a minute later with a mammoth free from all of 50 metres. There were no easy picking around the middle third for the Muff men, with some heavy hits going in from an aggressive Lifford outfit – former county U-21 man Gary McGirr picking up an early yellow for an over-the-top challenge on Eunan Keaveney. Charlie Molloy popped up on 14 minutes to fire over his second point of the afternoon and when Benny McColgan hoofed over a tremendous effort a minute later, the Muff men had re-established that opening three point cushion. Lorny Crossan was the target man for Lifford but Laurence Lynch was well up to the challenge and, with Benny McColgan, did good work to snuff out a number of promising Lifford attacks. Indeed, on the 20 minute mark, Crossan should have received his marching orders, having thrown a clear punch that downed Dermott Keaveney along the sideline. Somehow the linesman and referee both managed to miss the incident and Crossan not only escaped censure but actually emerged with a free! That seemed to spur on the Lifford men and they reduced the gap to a single point through points from McGirr and a pumped-up Paul Given. With Lifford now hoovering up every breaking ball around the middle and surging forward in waves, Martin Duffy finally rallied for the Inishowen men and broke through the middle with a promising run. Felled by three Lifford players and with no free forthcoming, Duffy was deemed to have taken the law into his own hands by referee Michael McShane, who flashed a straight red card much to the disbelief of the Muff contingent. An understandably disappointed Duffy had barely crossed the sideline when Lorny Crossan thumped over the equalizer, right on the stroke of the half-time whistle. At 0-5 apiece, but a man down and having endured three successful Lifford raids in succession, there was no doubt that the Muff men were going to have to dig very deep indeed for the remaining 30 minutes if they were to eke out the desired result. Dig deep they did and somehow emerged from a ten minute Lifford onslaught at the beginning of the second half without conceding a score. Time and again the Lifford men were thwarted – Christy Lynch, the aforementioned Laurence Lynch and Benny McColgan as well as Cathal McColgan and Raymond McLaughlin soaking up wave after wave of Lifford attacks, particularly down their right flank. The next score was going to prove vital and it went the way of the Muff men. Who else but the superb Damian Diver finally took the bull by the horns to squeeze over an absolute peach of a point to regain the lead for the Inishowen men with 13 minutes gone. John McLaughlin then replaced Cathal McColgan as the tension mounted at Burn Road. Diver and McBrearty swapped points to leave the score delicately poised at 0-7 to 0-6 with 15 minutes remaining. Diver stretched Muff’s advantage on 19 minutes with a long range free but there was a long way to go. A man down and under huge pressure, Muff managed the feat of defending en-masse (at one stage Damian Diver was their only representative north of the half-way line) with an admirable ability to attack in numbers. Enda McColgan joined the fray with five minutes of normal time remaining, as blood pressure levels among nervous Muff supporters rocketed. Christy Lynch, Mark Duffy, John McLaughlin and the excellent Benny McColgan led the Muff resistance during that frantic last six or seven minutes. Gary McGirr slotted over Lifford's first score in 15 minutes with a minute into injury time to put the minimum between the teams and ensure a very nervous last few minutes for Aidan McAleer's men. Damian Diver then went wide after great work by Benny McColgan and Mark Duffy but quickly made amends on the 34th minute when he converted a free after the hard-running Duffy was upended. 0-9 to 0-7, that fifth point from the trusty boot of Diver proved to be the final action of the day, sparking those scenes of well-earned celebrations as Muff join Buncrana, Urris, Burt and Carn in Division Three next year. |
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Naomh Padraig, Iskaheen:
Christy Lynch; Brendan McColgan (0-1), Ryan McColgan,
Laurence Lynch; Cathal McColgan, Martin Duffy, Raymond
McLaughlin; Gerard McColgan, Charlie Molloy (0-2); Mark
Duffy (0-1), Eunan Keaveney, Oisin McColgan; Dermot
Keaveney, Damian Diver (0-5), Aidan Lynch. Subs: John
McLaughlin, Enda McColgan. Naomh Padraig, Lifford: Shaun McBrearty; Michael Ferry, Paddy McNamee, Johnny Mahon; Darren Gillespie, Gary McGirr (0-3), Kevin McBrearty (0-2); Conor Catterson, Paul Lynch; Paul Given (0-1), Kevin Daly, Shane Gallagher; Shane Meehan, Lorny Crossan (0-1), Emmett Caterson. Key moment With the scores level 13 minutes into the second half, and having withstood fierce Lifford pressure up to that point, it was Damian Diver's superb strike from play that swung this game for Muff. Whoever scored first at that point in proceedings was going to win, Diver made sure it was the Inishowen men. Man of the match Very few Muff men failed to stand up and be counted over a hard-fought hour. From Christy Lynch out they had a great day at the office. Laurence Lynch and Benny McColgan were superb, Martin Duffy was motoring well before he got his marching orders, Mark Duffy was his usual impressive self, the Keaveneys and Charlie Molloy very solid, but once again it was that man Damian Diver who delivered big time when the chips were down. He'd walk onto any team in Division One never mind Division Four. Ref watch Michael McShane had a busy enough hour, awarding 39 frees in all – 21 of them to Lifford. Had they lost however, Aidan McAleer's side would have been right to feel aggrieved that Lorny Crossan escaped censure while Martin Duffy was flashed a straight red. Other than that one big error, McShane kept a very tight grip on a tension-ridden game. What now? Muff climb into Division Three, home to Buncrana, Urris, Burt, Naomh Colmcille and Carn. The Foylesiders are well capable of holding their own in a derby-dominated league that will certainly do Inishowen’s minibus operators no favours at all! For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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