Roslea 0-09 Belnaleck 0-13

Darragh McBrien came off the bench to kick four points as Belnaleck secured their first win of the season with victory away to Roslea last Friday night.

The sides were locked together at 0-08 apiece when McBrien entered the fray just before the water-break in the second half and he played a key role as Belnaleck finished strongly to claim the points on offer.

McBrien, who recently signed for Dungannon Swifts in the Danske Bank Premiership,made an impressive impact as he landed two frees, a ‘45 and a point from play as Belnaleck ran out four point winners on the night.

Art McMurroughs boss Colm Bradley was pleased with the performance and the result.

“I’m delighted with the win,” he said.

“I was relatively pleased with parts of our play against the Gaels the previous week and thought we would improve for that game. We haven’t really added any personnel and I suppose on paper we are still missing a good chunk of players but what’s important is how those who we have available go about their jobs.

“And against Roslea we played well, albeit we were wasteful in front of goal.

“Roslea were obviously understrength but it is a tough place to go so we are delighted to come away with the win and it means we have something to play for going into the last game on Friday week.”

Roslea have one point on the board from their two games and manager Peter McGinnity is keen for them to pick up points from their remaining encounters.

“We have two games left and you would like to be making an impression in those games as it has been a mixed bag to date,” he said.

“We have had players carrying knocks and niggles and we would hope to get some of those back sooner rather than later.”

On Friday night’s game, he added: “Up until Darragh McBrien came on I could not have predicted what the result would be but he kicked some wonderful scores including a couple of frees that did not look scoreable. Up to that it was a tight, close game even if Belnaleck were maybe the more dangerous.”

The opening period of the game was well contested and at the break Belnaleck led by the minimum, 0-05 to 0-04. Garvan Quigley, Dermot Lewsley and Bryan Owens were on target for Belnaleck while Shane Lynch and Niall Cosgrove chipped in with points for the Shamrocks.

It remained tight and competitive after the interval with Quigley and Owens again pointing for the away side and Lynch and substitute Brendan Sherlock notching points for Roslea.

However, the final quarter saw Belnaleck pulling clear as they landed five of the last six points through McBrien and Owens to seal the win.