Roslea 0-7 Belnaleck 0-5

Roslea secured their Senior Championship status for another year as they overcame Belnaleck with two points to spare.

For the losers they have one last chance to stay in to the top tier championship and avoid returning to Intermediate grade when they face Erne Gaels.

A low scoring affair, chances were few and far between for both sides, with Roslea making the most of their opportunities on the day.

Belnaleck were left to rue a host of missed chances and it something, manager Colm Bradley knows his side have to work on.

“I would be pleased with how we played with the exception of our finishing, “ said Bradley.

“We converted around 20 per cent of of our chances which is not good enough and we need to improve on that.

“But there can be days when things just go wrong in front of goals.

“We will work to fix it and be ready to go against Erne Gaels.”

Che Cullen opened the scoring for Belnaleck straight from the throw-in as he powered forward to fire over the bar.

Roslea’s score-in-chief- on the day, Sean Quigley hit his first two sores of the game shortly after, the first coming from a mark and this was followed by a pointed free to leave them a point ahead at the waterbreak.

While Belnaleck were guilty of some wayward shooting, Quigley hit his first score from play to open up a two point gap, 0-03 to 0-01.

As the half drew to a close, Darragh McGurn hit a point to cut the scores and leave one it at the end of a low scoring opening 30 minutes.

Quigley got his side’s fourth point of the day and the first point of the second half, getting his shot away while surrounded by Belnaleck defenders.

And the same man pushed his side into a three point lead as he got on the end of a searching ball in by James McMahon to leave it 0-05 to 0-02.

Like the first half, Belnaleck were not taking their chances with a number of players failing to hit the target.

McGurn had a sight off goal when he got through one-on-one with the keeper but he failed to find the goal which would have been a massive boost for his side.

He did manage to find the target with 15 minutes of the second half played to get his side up and running and the big forward added another shortly after to leave just one between the sides.

However, Roslea did not panic and a tidy score from Brendan Sherlock after more good play from McMahon pushed them back into a two point lead.

Midfielder McMahon made it a three point game again as time was running out and while Bryan Owens did hit a point for Belnaleck they ran out of time and chances as Roslea ran out two point winners in Donagh.

Belnaleck have to do it all again when they face Erne Gaels and will need a marke improvement if they are to avoid dropping back into the Intermediate Championship after only two seasons in the top tier.

For Roslea manager Peter McGinnity there was great relief to have claimed the win and secured their senior status.

“There was no elation or anything like that, it was just relief to have won and not have to go into that final game with no safety net.

“Now we should be able to look ahead and start the building for next season,” he said.