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Burt bridge 25-year gap
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Burt...2-7 (Georgie Kelly 0-5; Martin Strain 1-0; Tony Cregan 1-0; Sean McHugh 0-1; Jamie Barr 0-1) Buncrana...1-8 (Dara McDermott 1-4; Caolan McGonagle 0-2; Jack O’Loughlin 0-1, Ryan Varma 0-1) Story: Inishowen Independent BURT won the Inishowen under-12 championship in the most dramatic way imaginable when a goal from Tony Cregan deep in injury time snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They led by four points early in the second half, but a storming display from reigning champions Buncrana saw them narrow the gap as the clock ticked down. After sustained pressure Jack O’Loughlin drew Buncrana level on the stroke of full-time before Dara McDermott gave them the lead for the first time in the match a minute later. The Burt boys and girl fell to the ground in despair but picked themselves up to mount one final attack. |
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Matthew Breslin took the
kick out and Seán McHugh won it. McHugh was fouled and
took the free quickly to Mark Coyle. He laid it off to
Darren Gallagher who found captain Georgie Kelly lurking
in the right corner. Kelly carried in along the endline
and floated a handpass across the goalmouth for corner
forward Cregan to crown a superb move and palm it to the
net. Referee Chris Lynch sounded the full-time whistle seconds later. Burt’s unconfined joy in victory was matched only by the desperate despair of the Buncrana boys. The margin between winning and losing was a narrow one. The win was Burt’s first Inishowen A title at under-12 in almost 25 years and coach Danny Dowds oversaw |
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both wins. As Buncrana
manager Gary Duffy remarked afterwards, it makes you
wonder what age Danny is! Burt captain Georgie Kelly had won the toss and elected to play with the wind. It was a good decision and he opened the scoring with two points from play before Martin Strain got the first goal of the game. But Buncrana slowly got themselves into the game, with Christopher Duffy causing Burt all kinds of problems from right half forward. Dara McDermott opened Buncrana’s account before points from Sean McHugh and a Georgie Kelly 45 put Burt 1-4 to 0-1 in front. But Buncrana steadied the ship as Joseph McGrory and Shay Gill came to the fore. Dara McDermott dragged his team back into the match with a goal and two points but Burt had the last word: two Georgie Kelly frees made it 1-6 to 1-3 at the break. Burt faced into wind in the second half but a point from Jamie Barr put them four clear early on. Defences were on top in the third quarter with Kyle Long and Tom Doherty starring for Burt while Aidan Stokes and Cian Hirrell did a great job for Buncrana. Both teams were struggling to deal with the wet and windy conditions but it was Buncrana who found their scoring boots. Two points from Caolan McGonagle on either side of a Dara McDermott free brought the deficit down to one. Both sides hit wides before Jack O’Loughlin equalised and Dara McDermott gave Buncrana the lead. But Tony Cregan had the last word five minutes into injury time when he got on the end of a six-man length-of-the-field move to net the winning goal. It was the stuff that under-12 dreams are made of. Burt: Kyle McGrath; Kyle Long, Matthew Breslin, Caolan McGrath (Conor Bradley); Tom Doherty, Mark Coyle, Niamh Devlin; Georgie Kelly, Ryan McLaughlin; Jamie Barr, Darren Gallagher, Olivia Devlin (Paul McGrath); Sean McHugh, Martin Strain, Tony Cregan. Subs: Gavin McLaughlin; Calvin Gallagher; Jordan Arbuckle; Ryan Doherty; Vincent Callaghan. Buncrana: Harry Doherty; Aidan Stokes, Joseph McGrory, John Campbell (Ryan McElhinney); Jack O’Loughlin, Caolan McGonagle, Cian Hirrell; Shay Gill, Ryan Varma; Christopher Duffy, Ryan McLaughlin, Dara McDermott; Seosamh Gallinagh, Gavin McElhinney, Declan O'Donnell (Sean McFadden). Subs: Eamon Devlin, Oisin Grant, Sam Doherty, Philip Carroll. For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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