Last Saturday saw us make the long trip up North to play Bangor in Rd 6 of the league. Bangor who had started the season well had slipped up the week previous against Tullamore and didn’t want a repeat 2 weeks in a row, with former Ulster Exeter and Connaught lock Lewis Stevenson in their side and also been assisted by current Ulster players Craig Gilroy and Stuart McCloskey as backs coaches it was never going to be easy.
From the kick off the lads took the game to Bangor and after a series of early phases Kevin McManus released Cian Clifford to score out wide Kevin pinged a great convert and we were 7-0 to the good.
Bangor replied with pressure of their own and were awarded a pen when Taylor was adjudged to be late in the tackle but were narrowly wide from the kick, Taylor got 10 and we it was game on. We managed to keep Bangor scoreless until we got back to 15, and then started to apply some pressure of our own, from a line out Bangor pulled down our maul and they lost their influential Stevenson to the bin, Tony put us in the corner and from the line out we carried to their line and then found space for Liam Treacy to score in the corner, Kevin was unlucky from the conversation and it was 12-0. We should have added to the scoreline before h/t but went in 12-0 to the good.
Bangor started the 2nd half brightly and got on the scoresheet after some good pressure to make it 12-5 and we also lost Tony to injury. We managed to get ourselves back into the right area of the field and were rewarded with a pen which Kevin obliged to make it 15-5. This gave us a little cushion but Bangor weren’t finished they got in for another 5 pointer and the pressure was on. We lost Daniel to the bin and now were without our starting half backs With 5mins on the clock its was getting nervy but lads showed brilliant composure with some excellent handling skills they were able to run down the clock and bring back a hard earned 4 points. Credit to Bangor for a very competitive and physical game, and big thanks to all involved for their kind hospitality shown.
Also well done to all who made the long journey to support the lads.
1 Fionn Flanaghan
2 Johnny Cleary (capt)
3 paddy Cleary
4 Tom o Dwyer
5 Tadgh o Dwyer
6 Taylor Jones
7 Cillian Rea
8 Sean Hartigan
9 Daniel Jackson
10 Tony Cahill
11 Liam Treacy
12 Sean Darcy
13 Liam Barrett
14 Cian Clifford
15 Kevin McManus
16 Eamonn Costelloe
17 Kieth laffen
18 Mike Cooke
19 Neilus Keogh
20 Cian Tierney
Great to see Cian back from injury on Saturday
