Naomh Muire moved a step closer to promotion to Division Two after staving off a Gaeil Fhánada comeback last evening at The Banks.
Naomh Muire 1-11 Gaeil Fhánada 3-4
The home side went into this game knowing that a victory would leave them in pole position for promotion to Division 2 and they hit the ground running in the opening half as they kept Gaeil Fhánada scoreless in the first half and Naomh Muire team were immense in the first half scoring 1-7.
Shaun ‘Yank’ Boyle with the goal and he was clinical when called upon while they also had big displays from the O’Brien brothers in midfield, Adam tasked with the duty of marking Michael Sweeney.
Fanad went into the game without captain and vice captain Jimmy Coyle and Seami ‘Nanny’ Friel while Oisin Shiels was unable to shake off a hamstring strain.
Naomh Muire also had their own injury problems and the recent departure of Paul the Yank Boyle to Dubai was a huge loss to the Lower Rosses team, yet they dug deep last night and came away with a well deserved victory.
Naomh Muire played with the breeze and found their feet within the first 8 minutes. Shaun Yank caused all sorts of problems and had two fine scores on the board.
Tom McHugh tapped over before Harry Harden drilled over a free from distance. Ten minutes passed before the next score and it was a clinical goal from the Annagry side.
Adi O’Gara was heavily involved and laid the ball into Shaun ‘Yank’ Boyle’s path. Boyle had a lot to do but emphatically rifled to the roof of the net to leave the score 1-4 to no score.
Both Seami Coshia and Shaun McElwaine had pointed efforts drop short for Fanad before Shaun Yank popped over two frees to leave nine between the sides.
Fanad had a chance of goals in between. Seami Coshia had a half chance saved by Tomas Duffy before a Michael Sweeney run opened the space for Alan McAteer but his weak effort was saved by Duffy.
Brian McVeigh had a couple of long range frees drift wide in the tough breeze too before Jack Boyle brought the scoring down on the half with a lovely score from 30m.
HT: Naomh Muire 1-7 Gaeil Fhánada 0-0
Some stern words at half time awakened the Fanad fight. McVeigh and Jonny Friel opened Fanad’s account with two fine points.
With 15 minutes left to play, things looked done and dusted for Fanad.
McVeigh did drive over from distance only for Harden to knock over his second point to restore the 10 point cushion.
Odhran Shiels knocked over with his weaker left foot to move the deficit back to single figures with 10 minutes remaining. At that point the game was turned on its head. Firstly, with six minutes left, Michael Sweeney burst through several challenges and fired the ball beyond Duffy to give Fanad hope.
Two minutes later Heraghty done well to find Nanny again who slotted under Duffy to leave just three points between the sides and 28 minutes on the clock.
Fanad still had time for another goal, A looping ball from Niall Carr was flicked home by Sweeney to leave the minimum between the sides. From the resulting kick out, Naomh Muire worked it short and retained possession to close out the game.
A great victory for Naomh Muire who are now one step closer to Division two and Gaeil Fhánada bring a disappointing two weeks to an end, as they lost the intermediate championship semi final last Sunday.
