The seniors disappointing start to the season continued with a heavy away defeat to Creggan on Wednesday evening. After the fillip from the win over Ahoghill, the manner and margin of defeat will surely give the squad and management ample food for thought.
Despite Loughrey’s early domination at midfield the visitors were notably wasteful in possession and naïve decision-making in attack cost simple scores. Two paltry Cunningham frees on three and 19 minutes were all the visitors had to show for the first half in which the Creggan defence, marshalled well by the Johnston brothers, were completely dominant. Naomh Brid’s distribution and movement were generally poor in tandem with a general lack of sharpness and hunger for possession. Admittedly the cause was not helped with the early loss to injury of Daly as an already beleaguered defence was hastily reshuffled.
Going forward Creggan were able to weave pretty patterns at will, which was not surprising as any semblance of resistance from the blues forward line was well disguised. They registered six scores in a defining second quarter and when, on 23 minutes, young Ruiri McCann found a gap in the last line of defence to slot low past McSorley to double the margin to six, we had reached the point of no redemption.
HT: Creggan 1-7 Naomh Brid 0-2
There was a marked improvement in terms of contesting the game in the second half, which was encouraging, as was the performance of the lively Mickey Ward who contributed well on his introduction into the forward line. But chasing an eight point deficit was always going to be a tall order and the pressure to make early inroads showed as the frustrating wides count steadily mounted. By the time Ronan McGrady was sent off with 12 minutes left, with the southersiders stuck on three points, the tie was effectively over. Points from Ward and Cormac McGrady (2) were purely academic as Creggan purred on, making use of their numerical advantage to reel off four late points that gave the final score a somewhat more one-sided impression of events than was the case. But there was no doubting Creggan’s clear superiority on the night.
FT: Creggan 1-14 Naomh Brid 0-6
Next up in Rd 3 is a home match against so far pointless Rossa, which is already taking on more importance than it ought for an early May fixture. But there’s no mistaking, this is a major four point game.
Team: W McSorley, C Mackle, R Daly (M Malone), T McCrudden, M Donnelly, K Gallagher, P Lundy, D O’Hagan, J Loughrey, B McMahon, J Dowling (M Ward (0-2)), C Mohan, C McGrady (0-2), N Cunningham (0-2), R McGrady (C Mackle)
