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Promotion slips from Burt's
grasp
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Cloughaneely... 1-7 Burt... 0-7 By Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent BURT will play in Division 2 again next season after they threw away a comfortable half-time lead and were sucker-punched by losing an injury time goal to Cloughaneely in the Division 2 promotion play-off on Sunday. Cloughaneely smashed and grabbed with Kevin Mulhern’s goal providing their ticket to Division 1B football next season. Trailing by a point as the game entered injury time, Cloughaneely centre-half back Denis Ferry plumped for a shot from distance. However, his attempt for a point drifted to the left of the square where Kevin Mulhern stood unmarked. He composed himself and crashed the ball to the right of keeper Dermot Brown and to the roof of the net. |
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Substitute Joe Friel
applied the icing to the Cloughaneely cake when he added
a point two minutes into injury time to give the
Gaeltacht side a win that scarcely looked possible at
half-time when they trailed by 0-2 to 0-6. Having made the 40 mile trip to Dunfanaghy, Burt had started much the stronger with centre-half forward, Joe Boyle, scoring two points in the first two minutes. Burt’s defence was on top throughout the first half, with the full back line particularly strong and Cloughaneely made heavy work of what few chances came their way. Sean Maguire won a free on the right in the seventh minute, but Denis Boyle miskicked and the Burt defence cleared at their ease. It was just one of a number of chances that Cloughaneely failed to take in the opening half. Ciaran Dowds extended Burt’s lead with a fine 18th minute point. Paddy McDermott’s quick free found Dowds who was out in front of Doohan, he turned the full-back and pointed from an acute angle on the left. Two minutes later, Shane Bradley made use of the right hand upright to score Burt’s fourth point of the match. Dermot Callaghan had won a good ball in the full forward line and passed off to Brendan McDermott who fed Bradley. |
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It wasn’t until the 26th
minute that Cloughaneely raised a white flag. Eugene
Maguire won a free close to goals and Denis Boyle duly
converted. Burt were still defending in numbers, but
they weren’t alert enough and a quick free was passed to
Kevin Mulhern for the right half back to point two
minutes before the break. But Burt responded with two points before the break. Brendan McDermott evaded the attention of three defenders to score a fine point with his weaker left foot a minute before the break, before Shane Bradley converted a free in the 31st minute to give Burt an 0-6 to 0-2 half-time lead. A misty rain started to fall as the second half got underway and, with a rising breeze on their backs, Cloughaneely gradually got to grips with the conditions and started to impose their game on the Inishowen men. Ciaran Scanlon capitalised on indecision in the Burt defence to point eight minutes after the restart. Eugene Maguire reduced the deficit to two in the 13th minute of the half. |
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Kevin McDermott saved a certain point in the 15th minute
when he plucked Denis Boyle’s 45 from nearly a foot over
the bar. Burt were holding on by the skin of their teeth with time ticking down and knocked a couple of scorable frees wide. Their failure to score as the second half wore on gave added heart to Cloughaneely who kept chipping at Burt’s lead. Denis Boyle picking up a hacked clearance to point five minutes for full-time before Joe Friel’s 57th minute point brought the sides level. Substitute Enda McDermott became Burt’s fourth freetaker of the second half, but he held his nerve to convert a difficult free on the stroke of full-time that edged Burt into the lead. It should have been enough, but Denis Ferry’s hit and hope effort found the unmarked Kevin Mulhern who took his goal with aplomb. A fracas broke out on the sideline deep in injury time |
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provoked, it must be said,
by a Cloughaneely official who was on the playing area
when he had no business being there. With nearly all 30
players getting involved, it disfigured the game that
had otherwise been a fine and sporting contest. Acting on the advice of his linesman, referee John Joe Doherty – who had a good game – red carded Burt’s Brendan McDermott and Cloughaneely’s Ciaran Geeney while the instigator escaped censure. Scorers for Cloughaneely: Kevin Mulhern 1-1 Joe Friel 0-2 Denis Boyle 0-2 (1 free) Ciaran Scanlon 0-1 Eugene Maguire 0-1 Scorers for Burt: Joe Boyle 0-2 Shane Bradley 0-2 (1 free) Ciaran Dowds 0-1 Brendan McDermott 0-1 Enda McDermott 0-1 (free) Burt: Dermot Brown; Paul O’Brien, Ardal McDermott, Rory Grant; Martin Donaghy, Eamon Reddin, Niall Campbell; Kevin McDermott, Shane Bradley; Brendan McDermott; Joe Boyle, Paddy McDermott; Dermot Callaghan, Ciaran Dowds, Mickey McCann. Subs: Enda McDermott for Dermot Callaghan (half-time) Cloughaneely: Lee McFadden; Ciaran Geeney, Paddy Joe Doohan, Donal Coll; Kevin Mulhern, Denis Ferry, Eugene Maguire; Ciaran McFadden, Kevin Scanlon; Joe Boyce, Liam Coyle, Ciaran Scanlon; Denis Boyle, Sean Maguire, Brian Cuffe. Subs: Joe Friel for Brian Cuffe (38 mins); Declan McGarvey for Joe Boyce (51 mins). For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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