Naomh Brid nudged into fifth spot in ACL Div 1 after a functional win over Ahoghill at a blustery Musgrave Park on Wednesday evening. It wasn’t exactly stellar stuff from the home side against under strength opposition but the two points were nonetheless welcome at the mid league stage.
While Conway had to shuffle the pack slightly to replace the absent O’Hagan, the visitors’ youthful line-up attested to several enforced changes in their ranks. Nonetheless, last year’s Div 2 champions showed no early inhibitions, playing some attractive passing football which stretched the home defence at times. In an evenly contested opening quarter the sides were level three times as they exchanged point for point, McGrady, Edwards and McCann registering for Naomh Brid. The visitors took the lead briefly on 16 minutes but Loughrey powered through to hand O’Neill a simple equaliser. Notwithstanding the blustery conditions Naomh Brid were guilty of some wayward finishing, which served to keep the match on an even keel. However, their pressure did pay off on 25 minutes, when, after a McGrady free had restored the lead, McCann was quickest to react to a Sherry rebound off the post and steered the ball home. With that, the home side seemed content to rest on their laurels for the rest of the half. This encouraged Ahoghill who took advantage of some defensive fumbles to score three points without reply to leave just one point between the sides at the interval.
Half time: Naomh Brid 1-6 Ahoghill 0-7
Whatever was in the home side’s half time cuppa seemed to do the trick as they started the second half in blistering fashion. McAuley and Loughrey won frees converted by O’Neill and McGrady in turn. McGuckian, who had a solid match in the centre, fielded well to release Edwards who cut a swath through the reds defence before offloading to McGrady for a killer second goal on 35 minutes. There was no respite for the visitors as Smyth quickly added a point and then Reilly, continuing his rich vein of form, threaded a fine pass to McCann who increased the advantage to an unbridgeable eight. Ahoghill, who were now clearly struggling, did respond with a point but a run by Edwards, who was a constant threat on the 40, won a free converted by McGrady to maintain the margin. Even with some 20 minutes remaining the spark was gone from the game as the pace and intensity visibly slackened. Ahoghill kept their tally ticking with two points but McGrady with another free and Ryan Brolly after a surging run from defence by Rooney simply re-asserted the blues’ authority as the match meandered to its inevitable conclusion. As with the first half Ahoghill finished the scoring with a trio of scores but they were purely academic as the match points were long since sewn up.
Full time: Naomh Brid 2-12 Ahoghil 0-13
Team: J Mackle, B Reilly, M Rooney, J McKeever, D McAuley, B McMahon (B O’Donnell ), F Sherry, R Smyth (0-1), J McGuckian, J Loughrey, D Edwards (0-1) (N MacDonald), C Taylor (M Sweeney), R O’Neill (0-2), C McCann (1-2) ( R Brolly (0-1)), C McGrady (1-5)
Man of the match: D Edwards
