16 August 2006
 

Liatroim qualified for the Powerade Down SFC quarter-final when they had a well deserved 1-10 to 0-8 win over Shamrocks at Clonduff Park, Hilltown on Sunday night, 13th of August.

The sides were level at the interval Liatroim 1-2, Shamrocks 0-5 with the Liatroim side have the advantage of the breeze in that opening half. With the game entering its final quarter the winners were still ahead by one goal – 1-6 to 0-6. The Liatroim side finished the stronger side and in the end were good value for their five points win at the finish. Top scorer for the winners was county star Liam Doyle with 1-2 – the only goal of the game coming in the opening five minutes of the tie.

Burren produced a great last quarter to overcome near-neighbours Rostrevor by a single point 1-10 to 1-9 at the Hilltown venue on Sunday evening, 13th of August. The winning score came deep into injury-time from sub, Glen McMahon and was a great long-range effort. This was a game that the Rostrevor side looked winners for long periods and they were ahead at the break by 1-9 to 0-3. However, they were outplayed by a rejuvenated Burren side in the second-half who dominate the game in all sectors of the field and levelled the game in the dying minutes. They were now ’on a roll’ and deep into injury time they produced a winner from the long-range effort by Glen McMahon.

A tremendous comeback by the Burren side in a game that seemed to have gone away from them. Rostrevor will no doubt be asking themselves what went wrong in that second-half as they literally ’lay down’ and allowed Burren to come strongly and take the spoils.
Reigning SF champions, Mayobridge are on course for a hat-trick of Down SFC titles when on Saturday evening last, 12th of August at St. Patrick’s Park, Newcastle they outscored Longstone on a scoreline of 2-11 to 0-8.

This was a thrilling game from start to finish, and the final scoreline doesn’t do justice to the tremendous effort of the Longstone side, who trailed at the interval by 2-6 to 0-4.

With the breeze at their backs at the start of the second-half the young and talented Longstone side gave as good as they got from the champions, and if they had shown more composure in front of goals the scoreline could have been much closer in the end. However, Mayobridge never panicked throughout the game, and taking their scores well they ran out worthy winners in the end – and are still the team to beat in this season’s championship race.

In what turned out to be a one-sided affair in the Down SFC at the week-end, Loughinisland had too much strength and forward power for a luckless Ballyholland side and ran out convincing winners on a scoreline of 3-14 to 1-9.

Despite playing against the strong breeze in the opening half it was the Loughinisland side who dominated matters and they laid the foundation for their success leading at the break by 2-7 to 0-4.

Ballyholland tried hard to get back into the game in the second-half but they found it hard to break down a confident Loughinisland defence. The winners hit them on the break and scored 1-4 in the opening ten minutes of the second-half to pull away from their opponents. Loughinisland could afford to miss a penalty in the closing quarter when Kieran Murphy in the Ballyholland goals saved excellently from John Turley.

There was some consolation for the losers in the closing minutes when county star, Ronan Murtagh got through for a late goal – but it came too late to have any real bearing on the eventual outcome of the game.