Ardglass
keep winning ways at Ardtole - 06/06/2003
A.C.F.L Division 3
Ardglass 2-09 Dundrum 0-06 - 06/06/2003
By Marc
MacSiomoin, Dundrum
The meteoric rise of Ardglass reached
new heights at a sunny Ardtole on Friday evening.
Last year's Junior champions looked very able and
judging on their performance, seem more than capable
of holding their own in the division.
Dundrum seemed a totally different entity than previous
weeks performances suggested and in all truthfullness
they were extremely poor. Ardglass managed to do the
simple things right and despite the loss of the influential
Deegans, they conquered the middle of the park. This
was crucial for the Lecale side as it deprived Dundrum's
main man Walsh from engineering any sort of attack.
Without wanting to detract from the Ardglass victory,
the overall state of play left a lot to be desired.
The game was littered with fouls and free kicks and
this led to only eight scores coming from open play.
Yet, the underlying factor remains. Dundrum were simply
terrible. They were wasteful with possession and were
found wanting around the middle of the park for the
duration of the game. The Ardglass attack also asked
questions, as time after time they exposed the Dun's
backline.It was the ability of Ardglass to pounce
on Dundrum's misfortune which led to the homesters
handsome 9 point win.
With Ardglass weakened in midfield, it was up to their
attack to do the business. So up stepped the indomnitable
Chris Taggart. His first of six frees was converted
after 5 minutes of play. It countered Walsh's opening
score from the 21".
It was the first ten minutes of play that Dundrum
had the better control of. Young Venney confirmed
Dundrum's superiority in this timeframe as he tapped
over a sideline ball after 9 minutes. However, Ardglass
managed to get two Chris Taggart frees converted just
before Walsh hit a fine solo effort on 19 minutes.
Ardglass always looked the more dangerous going into
the break and their increased confidence in going
forward payed off with a goal. It arrived in a very
soccer style manner as Gerard McCargo broke free and
rolled the ball through to Magee. Faced one on one
with Gibney, Magee coolly slotted home to send Ardglass
4 clear going in at the interval.
Dundrum re-emerged for the second half with their
heads down and their inventiveness obliterated from
sight. Scores from McMullan and Coughlan in the first
two minutes only provided a misguided hope. For from
that point on, it was all downhill for the Dun's.
Ardglass assumed control and their opportunistic approach
coupled with their brimming confidence took them to
victory. Well executed points from play on 34 and
36 minutes were followed with two more frees from
the highly accurate boot of Taggart. Another score
from play on 45 minutes saw the homesters take a 7
point lead. With ten minutes to go Dundrum managed
a consolation score. It arrived from another well
taken 21" from Walsh. However, it failed to inspire
and although any sort of Dundrum comeback wasn't forthcoming,
this concreted matters.
The game finished with a most unique score. Ardglass
won a free 25 yards out and instead of settling for
a point, Taggart decided to go for glory and boy did
it pay off. He ended up drilling an unstoppable thunderbolt
to the top corner of the net to cap off a memorable
man of the match performance. Dundrum could only look
on and gloat.
Ardglass were always on top in defence and Chris Laird
stood out as the one who controlled Dundrum most effectively.
In the attack it was Taggart and Magee who led proceedings.
They received some good support from Curran and Kearney.
However, the match was won in midfield and Ardglass
should be very thankful for their midfield stand in's,
as they coped admirably with their tasks.
It was hard to derive anything positive from Dundrum's
performance. They were exposed in defence, out jumped
in midfield and well shackled in the forwards. Yet
Coughlan, Murray and Hurley should receive some praise
for taking the game to Ardglass in the final minutes,
despite it being over as a contest.
Dundrum: J.Gibney, C.McKibbin, C.Morgan, N.McComiskey,
J.Hurley, M.Murray, C.Carey, K.Walsh (0-03), J.McMullan
(0-01), A.Doyle, M.Coughlan (0-01), B.Walsh, J.McKibben,
G.Graham, C.Venney (0-01).
Subs: K.Byrne, P.Shields.
