Brides consolidate top spot
ST BRIDES 2-17 O’CONNELLS 1-10 LEAGUE leaders St. Brides consolidated their position at the top of the table with a ten point victory over O’Connells at the Grove on Saturday evening.
Paul McKeever got the home team on the scoreboard with a point from a free but the visitors replied with the next three from Shane Devine and a brace from Kevin Hearty.
Dean Corrigan pulled one back for O’Connells but the Knockbridge men answered with four points in a row from Sean Marry, Patrick Reilly and two from Aaron Hoey.
A Stuart Reynolds free reduced the margin but two more points from Hearty and Marry left the score 0-9 to 0-3 after 20 minutes.
Two points from Niall Conlon kept the Bellingham team in touch but after a quick free kick from Hoey found Marry he went on a run and shot to the corner of the net for the first goal of the game.
There wasn’t long to wait for the second goal of the game as from the kick out Jackie Agnew hit the net.
The sides shared the next two points and a free from Hoey was the last point of the half to leave the score at the break 1-11 to 1-6.
The visitors had a great start to the second half when a ball found its way to Reilly and he got inside his man and shot to the net.
Two frees from Conlon left six between the teams but try as the Bellingham side did they could not stem the tide of scores from the Brides and Hearty, Hoey, Reilly, Marry and Sean Brennan added points to leave the score 2-16 to 1-8 going into the last couple of minutes.
Two more points from Conlon finished the home teams scoring for the night and substitute Stephen Kettle got the last score of the game that keeps the Knockbridge men at the top of the Division 2 table.
ST BRIDES: Alan Meegan; Ronan Bailey, Laurence Steen, Pairic Mackin; Sean Brennan 0-1, Andrew Smyth, Conor Deane; Mark Hoey, Alan Dunne; Sean Marry 1-3, Aaron Hoey 0-4(2f), Shane Devine 0-1; Ciaran Deane, Patrick Reilly 1-2, Kevin Hearty 0-5. Subs: Stephen Kettle 0-1 for S. Devine, Cillian Kirk for L Steen, Cathal McKenna for C Deane, Aaron Devin for S Marry.
O’CONNELLS: David Eager; Keith Woods, Micheal Cairns, John McLoughlin; Jack Sadlier, Salem Rifaie, Stefan O’Hanrahan; Ciaran O’Brien, Conor McGill; Dean Corrigan 0-1, Niall Conlon 0-6(3f), Stuart Osborne; Jackie Agnew 1-1, Stuart Reynolds 0-1(f), Paul McKeever 0-1(f). Subs: Kyle Daniels for J McLoughlin, Cian Geeney for P McKeever.