St Mary's give themselves a chance as alarm bells sound at Red Hugh's

St Mary’s greatly boosted their chances of surviving in Division 2 of the All-County Football League with a five-point win over Red Hugh’s

St Mary’s, Convoy 1-7
Red Hughs 0-5 

In a feisty contest from the off and with saving league status on the agenda for both St Mary’s and Red Hughs there were a number of flash points in the course of the game. And referee Val Murray had his hands full in keeping a lid on it. In all the Ballyshannon official dished out six yellow - including two to members of the Red Hugh’s backroom team - three black cards and two red cards. 

And there were one or two others that were lucky to escape censure. St Mary’s finished the game with 12 players on the field as Patrick Dolan joined Keelan Gillen, who had been red carded earlier in the half, and centre half back John Doherty, whowas later shown a black card. 

MacCumhaill’s stay in promotion hunt with Letterkenny Gaels still not safe

The team from the Twin Towns are still with a chance of automatic promotion to Division 1 thanks to a one-point victory at Letterkenny Gaels, who are still looking over their shoulders with some apprehension

Dolan was sent off for a second yellow card offence. Mickey McMenamin and Shane Gallagher were the  Red Hughs’ players that received black cards. 

The first half was a forgettable one at the end of which Red Hughs led 0-2 to 0-1 at half-time. 

Gavin Sweeney on 13 minutes opened the scoring with a point for St Mary’s. Damian Browne scored from a long range free on 16 minutes and Shane Gallagher from play one minute later for the visitors.

But three brilliant points off the left boot of Patrick Dolan in the opening seven minutes of the second period turned things around. 

The first of Dolan’s was a monster strike from way out on the right hand side; the other two were long range frees. They were all super scores in a low-scoring encounter.  Five minutes later the locals were in clover when Liam Toye picked out Gavin Sweeney in behind the defence and only the keeper to beat. 

The corner forward did not disappoint to drill to the back of the net for a 1-4 to 0-2 lead. The locals were down to 14 shortly after when Keelan Gillen received his marching orders for a yellow card offence. He had been black carded in the first half. 

Stephen McMenamin, Damian Browne  and Denim Rowan and Darragh McMenamin left an imprint for the men from the Cross as they landed three points without reply to reduce the lead to three points. St Mary’s pulled away again in the closing minutes with three late points.

Malin confirm Division 2 promotion following ding-dong battle in Buncrana

Michael Byrne's side got the point they needed against a Buncrana side who gave as good as they got to ensure they avoid any complexities in the last series of fixtures against

The win saw St Mary’s leap frog Red Hughs in the league table to fourth from bottom and they can pass Letterkenny Gaels in the last series of fixtures to jump outside the relegation play-off positions. Red Hughs can still go automatically down.

St Mary’s scorers: Gavin Sweeney 1-1, Patrick Dolan 0-4,3f, Corrie Lee Brogan 0-1, Liam Toye 0-1. 
Red Hughs scorers: Damian Browne 0-2,2f; Jack Bradley 0-2,1f; Shane Gallagher 0-1.  

St Mary’s, Convoy: Mark Gordon; Keelan Gillen, Conal McDermott, John Moore; Benny Bonner, John Doherty, Conor Bonner; Padraig Gordan, Liam Toye; Patrick Dolan, Lawrence McMullan, Mathew Coyle; Cory Lee Brogan, Raymond McNamee, Gavin Sweeney. Subs: Oran Patterson for M Coyle, Liam Prunty for G Sweeney, Paul O’Leary for C Bonner.

Red Hughs: Luke Kelly; Aaran McGlinchey, Thomas McMenamin, James Gallagher; Jason Callaghan, Stephen McMenamin, Shane Gallagher;  Darragh McMenamin, Damian Browne; Ryan Kelly, Mickey McMenamin, Tiernan Kelly; Tim Callaghan, Odhran Doherty, Denim Rowan. Subs: Peadar McGlinchey for R Kelly, Pauric McMenamin for O Doherty, Jack Bradley for M McMenamin.

Referee: Val Murray (Aodh Ruadh)