Aghaderg continued their league
campaign playing Aughlisnafin last
Friday night at Ballyvarley. The
game was played in ideal conditions
and was a match that Aghaderg needed
to win convincingly to get their
season back on track after the narrow
defeat to St Johns in the previous
match. A lot of energy and effort
had been expended in the St Johns
game and the management were anxious
that the disappointment from last
week would not be carried into this
game. Four regulars were absent
which meant that the depth of the
squad was going to tested to the
full. The players called in to fill
the vacant places all played well.
This bodes well for later in the
league. There were also four substitutes
available, all of whom were given
some valuable game time.
The game started off at a last
lustre pace and it wasn’t
until the fifth minute that Aghaderg
opened their account with a Kevin
Anderson 20 metre pointed free.
Straight from the restart Rory Simpson
slipped the ball to Kevin who again
pointed, this time from play. The
“Finn” were playing
well in periods and at times were
asking questions of the home defence.
Kevin Anderson raised the white
flag again on ten minutes with another
point from play. Eugene Devlin scored
a goal on 15 minutes with a low
shot to the right corner, which
was quickly followed by a Barry
Quinn point from all of 40 metres.
A sloppy piece of defending saw
the “Finn” score their
first point from a 30 metre free
straight in front of the goals.
Buoyed by this success the visitors
registered another point before
Kevin Anderson scored a goal following
a mazy 40 metre solo run. Kevin
continued in this rich vein of form
collecting a further two points
from play. The visitors scored two
points before Rory Simpson and Christopher
Conlon brought the first half to
a close with points apiece.
HALF TIME: Aghaderg 2 – 8
Aughlisnafin 0 – 4
Aaron McAvoy was revelling in the
wide-open spaces on the right wing
and he started the second half off
with a goal in the second minute.
Andrew Carr then finished off a
nice move with a point. The “Finn”
still kept plugging away and were
rewarded with a point before Christopher
Conlon kept up his scoring averages
with a goal, shooting decisively
into the bottom corner. Rory Simpson
then scored the point of the match
when he received the ball from a
knock down and in one movement he
turned and thundered over a magnificent
point from all of 45 metres. Kevin
Anderson scored the next three points
from frees. Rory McMullan was covering
every blade of grass for the visitors
and his endeavours paid off with
two nice points from play. The last
ten minutes brought a goal from
Andrew Carr and points from James
McGrath, Kevin Anderson (3) and
Stephen Fitzsimmons.
FULL TIME: Aghaderg 5 – 17
Aughlisnafin 0 –7
This match helped blood the younger
players, all of whom showed up well.
Jack Devlin, Conal Sands, Christopher
Connolly and Conor McAlorum can
all be proud of their contributions,
which will not go unnoticed. Having
got back on track the next match,
which is away against Dromara, will
be a tougher test and one which
will go along way to decide which
teams will get promotion this year.
The match is on Friday at 7.30pm
in Dromara. Why not come along and
give the team your support?
