Up on the elevated pitch of Mitchell Park, Ballygalget, the Morgan Fuels Down GAA SHC round 5 game between Bredagh and Ballycran took place at 3pm. The roll of the weather dice favoured today’s game and in good time, considering what we’ve witnessed recently in terms of some decent openings of the heavens across the Ards peninsula.
A moderate breeze blew from the west as referee John O’Connor rolled in his own dice in the form of a sliotar. Today’s game for Ballycran had all the hallmarks of needing to complete the challenge ahead in order to secure a place in the final and a means of being able to finally put to bed a previous and unexpected loss at the hands of the city crew.
Bredagh, playing down the field wouldn’t have known before the game that after the first water break, the wind would switch around from the west to come from behind their nets in the north and help to sustain an advantage that they would not squander. The ‘purple and yellow’ shirts worked hard at hauling themselves up the leaderboard as both sides traded play, wides and frees up to seven points until Bredagh’s Niall McFarland slammed home a goal to the roars of delight from the sideline. It wouldn’t be long though before Chris Egan would throw his arms into the air protesting for being held on the approach to Bredagh’s goal mouth and not finding a sympathetic whistle from O’Connor, Egan took advantage of Bredagh’s hesitation and slipped around his marker to slot the sliotar past Bredagh’s keeper, Ian Galway. Going into the half time break, the scoreline was Bredagh 1-10 Ballycran 1-8.
In the second half of the game, Ballycran instantly closed the gap with points from Niall Breen and Conor Woods. Sensing the wind in their backs, Ballycran moved into a two point lead and once again both sides inched their way up the scoreboard but punctuated with another fine goal from Chris Egan, being picked up from a dropped in ball from Conor Woods and then hammered home by Egan with force.
Stephen Keith pucked out a long ball that fell nicely into the high waiting hand of Liam Savage but the hand pass to Michael Hughes was intercepted and then repossessed by Michael Ennis before dropping the sliotar into the mid field for Gerard Hughes. Powering his way from several markers, Hughes would strike the ball cleanly over the bar. At this point in the game, Bredagh 1-12 Ballycran 2-14.
Returning to some form after a period of recovery, Scott Nicholson vectored a ball from just inside the 45m line on the right hand side of the pitch to the front of the 20m line, which eventually found the ash of Chris Egan for his hat trick of the day. At this stage of the match, Bredagh would trail 1-16 to Ballycran 3-17.
As Bredagh regrouped in the mid field, hoovering up loose balls, Stuart Martin dropped back to intercept a ball around the 45m mark and without hesitation, crushed the sliotar onto the face of the hurl and set it sail for an almighty point.
Bredagh continued to apply pressure, looking for the elusive goal that might set them alight for a turnaround but after approximately two minutes of extra time, referee O’Connor blew for full time with the scoreboard illuminating against a darkening sky, Bredagh 1-20 Ballycran 3-20.
Ballycran will undoubtedly be delighted with today’s win and hopefully that should secure a place on the grid for the final. Hard luck to Bredagh, well done to Ballycran’s management and players for a great win and a truly enjoyable game to watch. A big thank you to our spectators who came out in significant numbers today, Down GAA for the administration and organisation and to Ballygalget for the use of the pitch.
[C. Egan 3-04, P Savage 0-7 (0-7f), S Martin 0-3, N Breen 0-2, G Hughes 0-2, J Clarke 0-1, C Woods 0-1 (0-1f)]
Co-manager Jamie Fowler surveys the pitch ahead of today’s game (BC v B – 1)
Co-manager James Henry Hughes patrols the warm up zone (BC v B – 2)
Referee John O’Connor with Ballycran’s Liam Savage and Bredagh’s Mark Patterson (BC v B – 3)
(BC v B – 4)
(BC v B – 5)
(BC v B – 6)
(BC v B – 7)
(BC v B – 8)
(BC v B – 9)
(BC v B – 10)
(BC v B – 11)
(BC v B – 12)
(BC v B – 13)
(BC v B – 14)
(BC v B – 15)
(BC v B – 16)
(BC v B – 17)
(BC v B – 18)
Chris Egan protests for an infringement before scoring the first of three goals (BC v B – 19)
(BC v B – 20)
Egan’s second goal (BC v B – 21)
(BC v B – 22)
(BC v B – 23)
(BC v B – 24)
(BC v B – 25)
Bouncing high into the back of the net, Egan’s third goal of the match (BC v B – 26)
(BC v B – 27)
(BC v B – 28)
(BC v B – 29)
SHC standings after round 5
