Naomh Colmcille CLG – Donegal

14/11/2010
Match report by Adrian Marsh.

Naomh Colmcille kept in the hunt for the coveted promoton play-off following a hard-fought victory against the newly-crowned league winners, Downings. The teams went in level at the break. Naomh Colmcille overcame a three pont deficit with 15 minutes to go to score 6 points without reply, and ran out winners by 3 points.

Downings got the first two scores of the match within the first two minutes. The referee ruled one of these went under the bar, when many in the crowd felt it was a point. Matthew Crossan, Ryan McErlean, Ciaran Callaghan, Barry O’Hagan and Thomas McKinley all looked to have been on the scoreboard in the first half with 8 attempted points, but one of the efforts was ruled out. Downings added three points to their early scores, to leave the half-time scores level at 0-7 to 1-4.

The second half started similar to the first, with Downings getting three points within the first ten minutes of the restart, and they also had a goal effort hit the outside of the post. Barry O’Hagan got Naomh Colmcille’s first score of the second half in the 53rd minute, before Downings added another point two minutes later. However that was to be Downings’ last score of the match. Matthew Crossan added a point for Naomh Colmcille, and immediately afterwards Ryan McErlean saw a goalbound effort well saved by the Downings ‘keeper, having been played in by Thomas McKinley. Matthew Crossan added two points to level the scores with 6 minutes to go.

Barry O’Hagan put Naomh Colmcille back in front with 5 minutes left. The Downings keeper came to this side’s rescue again to save a Thomas McKinley effort on goal, at the expense of a point. Barry O’Hagan completed the scoring in the last minute. The league winners trophy was presented to Downings after the match.