Burt recover from slow start to beat Fanad in Intermediate championship opener

Burt had two points to spare over Fanad Gaels at Hibernian Park on Sunday afternoon as they maintained the good form they showed throughout the league and reproduced it on the Intermediate championship stage.

They went about it the hard way, right enough, conceding a soft second minute goal and giving up another goal to fall 2-3 to 0-3 in arrears by the 16th minute.

Having won Division 3 against mostly Junior opposition, they took time to settle against a Fanad side who’d played in Division 2 of the All County League and been exposed to a higher level of competition.

Burt, managed by Marty Coyle who had Donegal hurling manager Mickey McCann alongside him on the line, grew into the game and reduced the deficit to two points by half time.

Burt drew level nine minutes into the second half, and their tails were up when Calvin Gallagher finished a scrappy goal to the net moments later as they moved into a 1-13 to 2-6 lead.

Fanad showed character to battle their way back into a contest that looked in danger of slipping away from them, spurred on by a big two pointer from Liam McGranaghan they hit a further three points without reply to re-take a one point lead with 49 minutes on the stopwatch.

With the game in the melting pot, Burt showed the better fitness levels and finished strongly to get the win with Jack O’Brien kick-starting their late salvo of five points with a fine two pointer, and Sean McHugh adding three points.

They led by four in injury time, but Mark McAteer halved that deficit striking a two-pointer with the last kick of the match – a score that could be important later on if or when scoring difference comes into play.

Read more: Malin overcome Buncrana in Inishowen Intermediate derby

The game was barely a minute old when Michael Sweeney hit the opening score. The big full forward was shooting for a two pointer, but his shot dropped short and in over the head of Burt keeper Niall McGlynn.

Seimi Nani Friel followed up with a two pointer for Fanad, and won a free for McAteer to convert and the visitors were 1-3 to 0-2 to the good.

McHugh from a free, and points from play from wide men Darren Gallagher and Keith McColgan brought Burt back into it, but they were hit for another sucker punch in the 16th minute when Oisin Shiels got into a good position on the endline and floated the ball across the square for James Kerr to palm home at the back post for a 2-3 to 0-5 lead.

McHugh and Bernard McGettigan exchanged pointed frees, and such was Fanad’s efficiency in front of the posts that they didn’t hit their first wide until the 24th minute.

Burt defenders Caolan McKinney, Leo Kelly, Tom Doherty and Oisin Kelly were getting to grips with their opponents by then, closing them down at pressuring them in the possession, and when a turnover was won they’d use their pace to swift move up field and create opportunities that McHugh, Keith McColgan and Jack O’Brien got on the end of.

Mark McAteer, though, had the final say of the first half with a pointed free and Gaeil Fhánada led by 2-5 to 0-9 at the break.

Conor Gartland pointed from the throw-in after Stephen O’Donnell had got the better of Michael Sweeney from the restart. The Donegal hurling captain is a fine footballer too and he struck over the first of two two pointers that Burt would hit in the second half, a score that drew Burt level four minutes in.

Jack O’Brien put Burt into the lead for the first time on 39 minutes, and when Calvin Gallagher punched the ball to the net after a shot for a point had struck the crossbar, the what had once been a four point deficit was now a four point lead.

Fanad’s response was impressive, with Liam McGranaghan firing over a monster of a two pointer into the breeze as they hit five points without reply – McGettigan, Sweeney and McAteer were also on the mark – to re-take the lead going into the last ten minutes of the match.

Subs Mark McElhinney and Ronan McDermott gave Burt a bit more strength and shape, and a Jack O’Brien two-pointer had the Hibernian Park on top again.

Fanad were caught napping at the back soon after. Passing back to the keeper is strictly forbidden under the FRC’s experimental rules, and one such errant pass put Fanad’s goalie Mark McConigley in a quandary.

He clattered into Caolan McKinney, flooring the Burt man who was racing on a pass that the keeper couldn’t touch. Referee Robbie O’Donnell initially signalled a penalty, but changed that to a 13m free when he arrived on the scene, and McConigley was fortunate to escape with a yellow rather than black card for trip on his opponent.

McHugh tapped over the free when all was said and done and Burt’s lead was out to two points.

The same player added two more points in the 60th and 61st minutes, the former after Stephen O’Donnell had taken a good fetch from a kickout and the latter from yet another free, and Burt held a four point advantage.

But under the new rules, that kind of lead isn’t what it used to be and Mark McAteer did muster a two pointer for Fanad with what proved to be the attack of the game.

It’s a rare championship win for Burt, their first on home turf since 2018, and sets them up nicely for the short trip to the Scarvey to play Buncrana on Sunday.

Gaeil Fhánada will host Malin at Pairc Uí Shiail on Saturday.

Burt scorers 

Sean McHugh 0-7 (5f); Jack O’Brien 0-4 (one 2pt); Conor Gartland 0-3 (one 2pt); Calvin Gallagher 1-0; Darren Gallagher 0-2; Keith McColgan 0-2

Gaeil Fhánada scorers

Mark McAteer 0-5 (1f, one 2pt); Michael Sweeney 1-1; James Kerr 1-1 Seimi ‘Nani’ Friel 0-2 (one 2pt); Liam McGranaghan 0-2 (one 2pt); Bernard McGettigan 0-2

Burt: Niall McGlynn; Leo Kelly, Tom Doherty, Oisin Kelly; Caolan McKinney, Denver Kelly, Darren Gallagher; Stephen O’Donnell, Conor Gartland; Andrew Walker, Sean McHugh, Keith McColgan; Darragh Donaghey, Calvin Gallagher, Jack O’Brien. Subs: Mark McElhinney for A Walker; Ronan McDermott for D Donaghey.

Gaeil Fhánada: Mark McConigley; Callum McAteer, Patrick Heraghty, Odhran Sheils; James Coyle, Sean Kerr, Darren McElwaine; Shan Carr, Oisin Shiels; Liam McGranaghan, Bernard McGettigan, James Kerr; Seamus Friel, Michael Sweeney, Mark McAteer. Subs: Oisin McFadden for J Kerr; Patrick Carr for L McGranaghan; Ciaran Sweeney for O Shiels.

Referee: Robbie O’Donnell (Naomh Muire)