10 October 2011
Antrim champions Loughgiel easily advanced to an Ulster final meeting with down champions Ballycran when they proved too strong for Derry champions Dungiven in Sunday’s semi-final at Casement Park. The Derry champions kept in touch during the opening half of the game and were only two points in arrears at the interval but after the change of ends the Shamrocks cut loose and goals from Benny McCarry and Liam Watson helped them to a 2-18 to 1-5 win.
It all appeared to be plain sailing for the Antrim champions when they led by 0-3 to no score after ten minutes but a Liam Hinphey point in the eleventh helped settle the Oak Leaf champions. Liam Watson and Dungiven’s Paddy Kelly exchanged points before Dan McCloskey and Joey Scullion (direct from a sideline cut) stretched the Loughgiel lead to four by the fifteenth minute.
Dungiven were thrown a lifeline three minutes later when full-forward Patrick McCloskey forced the ball over the Loughgiel line to cut their arrears to a single point and suddenly it was game on, and though ‘Skinner’ Laverty and Benny McCarry added points for the Antrim champions a Patrick McCloskey point meant that Dungiven were only two adrift at half-time.
The second-half saw a complete turnaround in fortunes as the Shamrocks soon gained full control and though Patrick Kelly did manage a Dungiven point in the thirty-seventh minute their challenge was all but ended when Benny McCarry grabbed Loughgiel’s opening goal in the forty-fifth minute. Declan Laverty, Joey Scullion and Liam Watson knocked over points to pull their team nine clear and even though Kevin Hinphey pulled one back in the fiftieth minute a goal from a Liam Watson twenty-metre free soon afterwards ended the contest.
Loughgiel will meet Down champions Ballycran in two weeks time in the Ulster final, and though the men from the Ards will prove a stronger challenge than Sunday’s opponents the Shamrocks must be strongly fancied to put retain their Ulster crown.
LOUGGHIEL – DD Quinn, Paul Gillan, Neilly McGarry, Ronan McCloskey, James Campbell, Martin Scullion, Johnny Campbell (capt), Barney McAuley, Mark McFadden, Liam Watson, Declan Laverty, Eddie McCloskey, Benny McCarry, Joey Scullion, Dan McCloskey.
