Strong second half sends Belcoo into semi-final
Irvinestown 2-12 Belcoo 2-14
A strong second half display from Belcoo helped them secure a semi-final place in the Intermediate Championship.
Despite being four points down early in the second half, Belcoo rallied and turned into a lead they would not relinquish.
It was pretty much even in the opening stage of the first half with Eoin Shiels and Stephen Sheridan trading good scores before Cillian Murray hit a monster score but Caolan Ward responded with two scores as he took the game to Belcoo.
And then with the next attack Ward was played through by James Duffy who popped the ball into his path and he fired to the bottom corner to make it 1-03 to 0-02.
Belcoo would cut the lead to two points by the end of the half thanks to scores from Lawrence Mckeown, Paul Mcgrath, Dean Mcdermott and Gary Doherty while Irvinestown had scores from Michael Mahon and Ward to leave it 1-05 to 0-06 at the break.
Irvinestown made a bright start to the second half with an Ronan Ormsby free and Ward.
But Belcoo took control with Murray and Flaherty (2) to leave one in it.
Josh Largo-elis then pointed but Mcgrath hit another free after the referee awarded a free for holding against Sean Clear.
Belcoo then took control when Barry Mcgovern did well to get his foot to the ball and it went into the net.
Mcgrath and Conor Mcaloon would land points off their left boot before Belcoo pushed themselves into a lead. And unlike the league final meeting of the pair it was a lead they would not relinquish this time around.
An Irvinestown 45 dropped dangerously in the Belcoo square but it was well defended and Flaherty broke out with the ball before finding James Mcgrath.
He played the ball on to Lawrence Mckeown whose brilliant cross field ball was gathered by Gerard Mchugh.
Mchugh in turn played the ball across the Irvinestown square to Mcdermott who made no mistake from close distance.
Mckeown and Murray would hit the final two points for Belcoo as they exploited Irvinestown on the break.
Irvinestown’s Clear, Liam Murphy and Ormsby would register points as they looked to find their way back into the game.
They did have a sight of goal in injury time as Sheridan drilled over and the same player did find the net late on but the goal was to be too little too late for Irvinestown as Belcoo saw out the game to win by two points, 2-14 to 2-12 and set up a semi-final clash with Tempo this Sunday.