Belcoo 3-16 Aghadrumsee 0-05

Belcoo made an emphatic return to winning ways with a 20-point victory over Aghadrumsee last Friday evening.

In wet conditions, the home side dominated from the first whistle as they ran into a 12-point half-time lead putting the game effectively to bed in the opening half.

It was a win that saw them return to the top of Division Two which has five teams separated by a single point going into the last three games of the campaign.

After two minutes full forward Christopher Leonard was out in front to win a ball before swinging over with his left as Belcoo would hit 1-05 without reply.

Ciarán Flaherty would hit a point after some patient play before Daryl Kelly made it 0-03 to no score after eight minutes.

Belcoo’s first goal was a fortuitous one as a shot from Cillian Murray dropped short, but Leonard was able to get a hand to it to knock it past the Magpies’ keeper.

It would be a while before the next score this coming from the boot of Conor McAloon after 17 minutes and this was quickly followed by a Flaherty point.

Aghadrumsee would get their first and only point of the half with the next attack as Dale Crudden did well to win a ball across the square and fire over.

Belcoo’s next score was a goal as Dara Flanagan drove at the Aghadrumsee defence before crashing a shot off the crossbar. The rebound fell to Dean McDermott, but his shot was blocked, falling kindly for Flanagan who made no mistake at the second time of asking.

Points, including an excellent one from Murray, and McDermott rounded off an impressive first half for Belcoo and left it 2-07 to 0-01 at the break.

The home side started the second half strongly with their first attack yielding a point from Flaherty after being played in by Murray and this was shortly followed by a good Lawrence McKeown score, but it would be over 10 minutes before Belcoo would score again.

In that period, Aghadrumsee had a point from Crudden when he blasted over.

Then Aghadrumsee had a penalty awarded, but Courtney’s attempt was pushed round the post by Gary Doherty.

McAloon would end the drought as the game entered the final quarter, but the visitors responded through an Aidy Bannon free.

Kelly would then hit two on the trot before Flanagan was played a one-two with Flaherty before driving at goal and making no mistake at the first time of asking, 3-12 to 0-03.

Aghadrumsee would hit two late points from Tommy O’Hara and Courtney while points from Flaherty (2), McKeown and Ethan Butler would wrap up the scoring for Belcoo as they recorded an emphatic and important win.

For Belcoo manager, Barry Hanrahan, he was happy to get a win with things so close in the Division:

“It’s getting very tight at the top end of the table.

“We were short quite a number of players from our squad but we still managed to rack up a big score.

“We have Newtownbutler away next. Like ourselves they are in the mix.

“I believe they are opening their new pitch for our game, so it’s an exciting time to be heading to their ground.”