Portaferry 1-12 Ballycran 0-13

By Down Hurling PRO Patrick Murphy

Portaferry knocked out defending champions Ballycran in the Semi-Final of the Down Championship in a misty Ballygalget. Both teams came out of the dressing room on the stroke of 5.30 and then entered a warm up routine for a further 10 minutes, much to the annoyance of the referee.

The opening 10 minutes had Ballycran winning possession through out the field. They looked well organised and despite Portafferry’s efforts were generally assured and confident in possession. After 20 minutes Ballycran led 0-8 to 0-6 and seemed to be slowly pulling away. Portaferry’s main scoring threat was Paul Branniff and he was being contained well by Sean Ennis.

Portaferry then got a lucky break. A free that was dropping short to the square was deflected past an the unlucky Masterson in the Ballycran goals. Portaferry who were being outplayed suddenly found themsleves a point up. This gave them a burst of confidence and they added 2 more points to lead by 3 at half time

Ballycran emerged from the break and in the first 10 minutes stuck over 4 points to Portaferry’s 1, leaving the sides tied on 0-12 to 1-9. Portaferry were 1 point up when Ballycran’s Gary Gordon retaliated violently to a rather physical Portaferry challenge and was shown the red card by Hugh Pat McCusker.

With Portaferry 2 points up and 5 minutes left on the clock, a few personal scores were settled between players and a few new ones set up for a future occasion. However, the match officials were quick to step in and prevented the game boiling over.

On the day Ballycran tried to play a stylish an open game of hurling. Portaferry beat them with hard graft and some good tactics for winning their own puckout. Portaferry now meet Ballygalget in the final in what promises to be a tough battle between 2 evenly matched teams.