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Bredagh senior footballers into Ulster quarter final
Monday 17th October 2016
Bredagh senior footballers into Ulster quarter final
Bredagh 2-10 Burt 0-3
Bredagh senior players certainly didn’t slip up in this potential banana skin preliminary round fixture in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny, against the Donegal team, Burt, who had just been crowned intermediate champions 24 hours previously.
Regardless of the situation, Bredagh proved they were much superior in every position on the field and started the game on the attack with a score from the trusty right boot of Alan Davidson in the 1st minute. Donal Hughes doubled the South Belfast men’s lead with a fine point a few minutes later and Davidson scored his second point of the game in the 6th minute with a quick swivel and shot from 25 metres. Burt responded with a pointed free from their ace free kick taker Joe Boyle.
Alan Davidson restored Bredagh’s 3 point margin with another point from play in the 10th minute before Boyle scored another free kick for Burt to make it a 2 point game (0-4 to 0-2). Bredagh were in ascendancy and beginning to break down the 14 man Burt blanket defence (one player upfront) with their pass and move game and in the 23rd minute Alan Davidson slipped in Conor Francis who finished to the net with aplomb.
Davidson converted a 40 metre free on the half hour and a minute later, Conor Francis helped himself to a point, Kevin Dornan scored a splendid kick from distance on the 32nd minute leaving it 1-7 to 0-2 for Bredagh at half time.
Playing into the strong wind in the second half, Bredagh found scores difficult to come by as Burt continued to deploy the blanket defence tactic despite being down by 8 points. It wasn’t until the 45th minute that the 1st score of the half came, courtesy of a "45” from Burt’s Paul McHugh.
It was all Bredagh in the final quarter - Emmett Costello split the posts with a fine score on 46 minutes, Alan Davidson converted a 40 metre free off the ground on 50 minutes and Donal Hughes tapped over a 20 metre free in the 51st minute. With 5 minutes of the game remaining, Alan Davidson palmed into the net past Burt’s Kevin McDermott after the best move of the game which started with Paddy McLaughlin catching a high ball over his shoulder inside the 20 metre line and then starting the attack up the left hand side of the pitch.
Referee Dan Mullan blew matters to a close with Bredagh winning 2-10 to 0-3 and will play the Monaghan champions Donaghmoyne in the quarter finals in the more familiar surroundings of Pair Esler, Newry on Sunday 30th October.
Parador Man of the Match – Conor Francis
Bredagh Team; J Duffin; O Costello; D O’Hara; C Savage; M Magee; D McKegney; K Dornan; N Kelly; J Shields; C Toland; Alan Davidson, E Costello; C Francis; D Hughes; N Mullholland; (Subs; P McLaughlin for D McKegney)
Bredagh scorer’s A Davidson 1-5; C Francis 1-1; D Hughes 0-2 (0-1 frees); K Dornan 0-1; E Costello 0-1
Burt scorer’s; J Boyle 0-2 (0-2 frees); P McHugh 0-1 ("45”)
Referee; Dan Mullan
