Naomh Muire bounce back with win over St Naul's in the Banks

Naomh Muire bounced back from last weekend’s defeat away to Dungloe with an eight-point win over a battling St Naul’s at the Banks this afternoon.

In windy conditions, and in a tie heavily influenced by the strong breeze blowing down the field, Danny O’Donnell’s men came from eight points down at half-time.

St Naul’s played with the wind and led 0-10 to 0-6 at the break, thanks to four two-pointers from Stephen Griffin and one from Jonathan O’Driscoll. 

However, the reality is that the men from Gerard Gallagher Memorial Park didn’t make enough use of former county man Griffin’s ability to land long-range scores.

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They were also slow to get going. Jonathan O’Driscoll’s point 13 minutes in was the game’s opening score.

It took another five minutes before Griffin swung into action with the first of his two-pointers.

The big number 14 added another two two-pointers before Shaun Burns struck Naomh Muire’s opening white flag.

That came on 25 minutes, after a series of Naomh Muire wides, with Burns fisting over from a tight angle on the left.

One minute later, he converted a close-range free for Naomh Muire’s second and final score of the first half. His strike trimmed the deficit to four points at 0-6 to 0-2.

But two more Griffin two-pointers sent the visitors in 0-10 to 0-2 ahead at the halfway mark.

Naomh Muire dominated the second half, opening with two quick points from Daniel Devlin to cut the deficit to six.

Two Paul ‘Yank’ Boyle two-pointers in the space of three minutes had St Naul’s lead down to two.

Thanks to stout St Naul’s defending, it took another ten minutes before points from the impressive Cathal Fee and Shaun Burns brought the game level.

Ferdia Doherty got forward to land a monster two-pointer that put Naomh Muire in front for the first time.

Now two points ahead, they kicked on with scores from Fee, Jack O’Donnell, and Devlin to harden their grip and get their league ambitions back on track.

Naomh Muire scorers: Paul ‘Yank’ Boyle 0-4, 2tp; Daniel Devlin 0-4, 1tp; Harry Harden 0-2, 2f; Shaun Burns and Cathal Fee 0-2 each; Ferdia Doherty 0-2, 1tp; Jack O’Donnell and Joe Gillespie 0-1 each.

St Naul’s scorers: Stephen Griffin 0-9, 1tp,3tpf; Jonathan O’Driscoll 0-1.

Naomh Muire: Conor White; Conor Cannon, Ferdia Doherty, Tuathail Lunny; Jack O’Donnell, Fintan Doherty, Darragh Doherty; Patrick Gillespie, Adam O’Brien; Joey Gillespie, Paul ‘Yank’ Boyle, Shaun Burns; Harry Harden, Daniel Devlin, Cathal Fee.

Subs; Patrick McCafferty for P Gillespie (h/t).

St Naul’s: Joe Campbell; Barry Burke, Niall Prenderville, Ryan Coughlan; Martin Breslin, Oisin Mogan, Christian Ward; Lee McBrearty, Barry Griffin; Shane Connelly, Thomas White; Michael Coughlan; Declan Duignan, Stephen Griffin, Jonathan O’Driscoll.

Subs: Danny McDyre for  O Mogan (23,inj); Stewart Johnson for S Connelly (h/t); Conor Campbell for J O’Driscoll (51); Rory Kennedy for R Coughlan (53 inj).

Referee: Kenneth Byrne (Naomh Columba).