Maguiresbridge 1-10 Belcoo 1-12

THERE wasn’t much between Maguiresbridge and Belcoo throughout the 60-minute tussle last Friday night; however, it was the visitors who finished strongly to claim a two-point victory.

The sides – both missing a number of key personnel – were level on numerous occasions in this Division 2B fixture as neither side could create enough breathing space until the final few minutes.

From the outset, the sides cancelled each other out.

Maguiresbridge took the lead through Sean Corrigan and Barry McPhillips, but good work from the Belcoo attack saw Paul McGrath hit his first of the day, and it was followed by a Matthew McAloon point to leave it all square midway through the half.

The Bridge were to go in at the break with the slimmest of advantages as Corrigan and the two McPhillips, Darragh and Barry, all helped themselves to scores, while McGrath and McAloon hit a score each for the visitors as the half ended 0-05 to 0-04.

It was level shortly after the restart as Ciarán Flaherty clipped over a point, and it would remain even until the home side hit the back of the net.

A Belcoo defender was dispossessed and the Bridge punished them with a well-worked goal fisted past James McGrath.

McGrath added another point for Belcoo before Shane McCabe hit a fine strike off his left to keep Belcoo in the game, while Niall Carson popped over points for the Bridge to leave it 1-07 to 0-07 at the water break.

But Belcoo were right back in it as McAloon found the net. Good build-up play from Philip Leonard and Gerard McHugh teed up the Belcoo forward to find the corner and level the game once again.

It was to be score for score for a while as Corrigan and McPhillips again were prominent for the Bridge, while McGrath and Leonard knocked over placed balls.

As the game entered its final minutes, Belcoo got on top and sealed the points through McGrath and full back Niall Leonard, who came bursting forward to hit a fine score.

And there was one further point from McGrath to make sure of the victory.

The Bridge had one last chance at the end, but their high ball into the Belcoo square from a free was safely cleared away as it ended 1-10 to 1-12.

Belcoo Manager, Shane McCabe, was glad his side came away from the tough game with the points.

“Both teams were light on numbers and we took a while to get any flow into our game. We missed a couple of relatively easy chances in the first half.

“Going a goal down, we showed good resilience and quality to get the win.

“I was happy with a lot of the play, attitude and applications from the boys, but there is a lot of room for improvement,” he added.