Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 1-16
Carryduff 1-9
Coming away from Páirc Liam Uí Ír on Monday night, it was plain to see that Tom Daly, Sean Mallon & Liam Boyle were well pleased with how their charges had performed in their first home fixture of the league, having led from the opening 2 minutes and to finish with a comfortable seven win. Seventeen minutes into the game the blues had stormed into what turned out to be a match winning lead, 1-7 to 0-0 ahead, whilst Carryduff struggled to make anything work up front when faced with the blues final defensive unit James McParland, Conan Kelly & Cathal McGivern.
Playing with a slight wind advantage in the opening half and with two minutes on the clock John O’Kane began the blues fifteen minutes scoring blitz as he converted a fifty-metre free for a foul on Cathal Fagan. A minute later from outside the twenty-metre line his shot went straight to the net as the Carryduff keeper struggled to get down to the speed of the strike. Over the next ten minutes four further O’Kane frees, either side of Cathal Fagan’s ninth minute point from outside the D, were to punish Carryduff for several indiscretions down the right side of the field as they found the combination of pace and guile of Niall McParland and Fagan too much to handle. Fagan’s first score was just rewards, for the roaming full forward had moments earlier seen his long-range midfield strike go the wrong side of the post. The blues half back line of Tom Daly, Mattie Teague & Jason Grey were totally in control and rarely looked like they were ever in any trouble the whole evening. Carryduff took until the nineteenth minute before they got their first score, a snap shot from the edge of the square by Lorcan McCaughey when given the slightest of gaps to shot. Five minutes later Gareth Lynch got their second with a forty-metre free. O’Kane & Jamie Grant replied for the blues, but moments before the short whistle Carryduff’s midfielder was given his matching orders for a dangerous stroke and they were already ten points behind with another 30 minutes to play.
McCaughey opened the scoring in the second half for the visitors and as they found a bit more freedom up front Carryduff began to tack on a few extra scores as Gareth Lynch and Daniel Murray became more prominent in the remaining 20-25 minutes. Grant, McParland & Fagan did their best to keep the blues just far enough out of reach with points for the hosts. O’Kane steadied the ship when he drove over from fifty metres out in the eighteenth minute. The blues were very unlucky not to have had three possible goal chances converted in the remaining quarter of the game, when on the twenty-minute mark Fagan had rattled the post from twenty metres out only to see McParland put the rebound wide of the post. Jamie Grant looked to have settled matters moments later after having slipped his marker he unleashed a bullet that looked sure to burst the net, but somehow the Carryduff net minder deflected the sliotar up, onto the crossbar and over for a point. Carryduff weren’t going to go down without a fight and although any chance of a comeback had long gone, Gareth Lynch showed what a classy hurler he was when he scored a brilliant goal fourteen metre out to the left of Anthony O’Brien’s goals. There were now eight points between the sides as the game approached the minute when Lynch added the final score of the game, a sixty-metre free.
The blues will hope to go three from three next Monday with a trip to Ballyvarley and hopefully another moral boosting win to keep the pressure on table toppers Ballela
Warrenpoint Scorers: John O’Kane 1-8, Cathal Fagan 0-3, Jamie Grant 0-3, Kevin McCullagh 0-1, James O’Hare 0-1.
