Moville end Burt's chance of promotion to Division 2

Moville will be delighted to have taken the points on a sunny afternoon at Carrick Field against a Burt team that needed a win to keep them in the play-off hunt.  

Goals win games and this match saw a clinical Moville forward line making the most of the few chances that came their way, with three well taken goals effectively sucking the life out of a Burt team that attacked throughout but were frustrated by a combination of poor finishing and a resolute defence from the Moville backline.  

Burt pushed forward from the off, with two points and a wide recorded in the first three minutes before Moville found their feet with Michael Leech driving in on the Burt goal to draw a fine block from the defence.  

However, it was only a brief respite as Christy Hegarty showed all of his experience and intelligence to claim a mark on the edge of the Burt box to bury the ball into the net before the defence had caught up with the action, giving Moville the lead - which was then followed up by a Dylan Doherty free.  

Another pair of Burt wides eventually led to them scoring again, from a Moville kickout that held up in the stiff breeze, with another freefalling their way before the break to leave Burt a point to the good at half time, with Moville to enjoy both the breeze and the slope in their favour after the break.  

The second half was really more of the same, with Burt hitting four more wides before a pinpoint crossfield kick from Enda Faulkner to Christy Hegarty saw the ball moved on to Michael Barr who buried his shot in the back of the net for Moville’s second goal.  

Faulkner was again back into action immediately, blocking a Burt shot on goal and then forcing a wide with some excellent work at the back, before again turning over a Burt attacker – showing real steel and leadership at the heart of the Moville defence.  

As the game wore on, Malachy McDermott, in his first start for some time, became more and more involved in the action, with some characteristic high fielding and raking passes from midfield reminding the crowd of what they have missed through his injury.  

It was a high-fielded mark from McDermott that saw him feed Joshie Lafferty in front of the posts before he laid the ball off to Pauric Skelly for Moville’s third goal on 48 minutes.  

With Burt’s lack of accuracy starting to tell, Moville were four points up with 10 minutes to go.  

McDermott then went on to score the point of the match, from wide on the left, and it looked like Moville were cruising to victory as more wides followed for Burt. 

However, Burt began to find their range with three minutes to go and two frees and a point from play in quick succession reduced it to a two-point game as they piled on the pressure into stoppage time.  

A further Burt point was sandwiched between two more wides for them, as Moville ran down the clock with a late free that was pushed wide to close out the match and run out as winners by a single point.