Naomh Colmcille CLG – Donegal

15/08/2010
Naomh Colmcille hosted Downings on Saturday evening in the first round first leg of the Junior A Championship. Recent meetings between these sides in the League had been tight matches with Downings edging it so Naomh Colmcille sought to reverse that trend against a side tipped by some to go all the way in the Championship this year.

Naomh Colmcille got off to a great start with 3 points in the first 3 minutes. First Ryan McErlean won a free that Barry O’Hagan converted, Richard Clarke then won a kickout in midfield and played it forward to Ciaran Devine who pointed from 30 yards out in the centre. A minute later Ryan McErlean finished a slick move involving Barry O’Hagan and Liam Grant.

The home side added to their early flurry of points a few minutes later when Joe Donaghy was brought down after a surging run through the centre, and Barry O’Hagan converted the resulting free. Richard Clarke notched a point after good work from Liam Grant, Barry O’Hagan and Ciaran Callaghan to stretch the lead to 0-5 to no score.

Downings got their first point on the board on 13 minutes with a free after a wayward Naomh Colmcille sideline ball. Ciaran Callaghan replied when he showed great awareness to latch on to a Barry O’Hagan 45 that fell short. Callaghan managed to turn and send the ball over in a tight space under pressure.

Although Naomh Colmcille had dominated possession for the majority of the first half, Downings scored 3 points in the last 5 minutes to bring the scores back to 0-6 to 0-4 at half time.

The third quarter was tighter than the first half, with both sides trading points. Barry O’Hagan sent over two frees, one won by Richard Clarke, the other by Thomas McKinley before Downings responded with two points from play. Ruction Callaghan came on for Paddy O’Donnell before O’Hagan notched another point from play and Downings closed the gap to two points again with another point.

However, Naomh Colmcille stepped up a gear and went on to dominate the last quarter. O’Hagan sent over a sublime point with his left from near the right touchline. Ryan McErlean added another before Thomas McKinley finished off the best move that characterised the excellent team performance from the entire Naomh Colmcille side. Marty Callaghan collected the ball in goals, worked it out to Ciaran Callaghan who broke through 2 tackles to lay it off to Cathal Curran, who in turn laid it into the path of Liam Grant. Grant hand passed to McKinley who burst through the middle, shook of his marker and sent the ball over with his fist.

Ryan McErlean added to his tally with another fisted point, closely followed by another point from O’Hagan, set up by Richard Clarke who had been found by a great ball from Ruction Callaghan down the right touchline. Downings got a point from play with a few minutes left on the clock but Ruction Callaghan was to finish the scoring in injury time to leave the scores at 0-15 to 0-8 and round off an excellent all round team performance from Naomh Colmcille.

Naomh Colmcille:

Marty Callaghan,

Paul McGill, Anthony Grant, Paul Friel,

Thomas McKinley (0-1), Cathal Curran, Andrew Clarke

Richard Clarke, (0-1) Barry O’Hagan (0-7)

Ciaran Callaghan (0-1), Liam Grant, Ciaran Devine (0-1)

Paddy O’Donnell, Joe Donaghey, Ryan McErlean (0-3)

Subs: Ruction Callaghan (0-1) for Paddy O’Donnell