St Eunan's cruise to ten point victory away to Buncrana in All County League

St Eunan’s moved into second place, for 24 hours at least, in Division 1 of the All County League with this win over Buncrana at the Scarvey on Saturday afternoon.

Seven points from corner forward Eoin McGeehin, who scarcely wasted a possession over the hour, helped them to a ten point win.

The county champions led by 0-9 to 0-2 at half time, and while Buncrana rallied briefly in the second half when John Campbell hit the groove, St Eunan’s were able to click through the gears and finished well with half time sub Conor O’Donnell Jnr contributing four points, including a two point free with the last kick of the game.

Promoted from Division 2 last term, Buncrana’s good start in Division 1 has petered out somewhat as injuries cut through their squad. Their match away to fellow strugglers Malin later this month will go a long way to determining whether they can avoid automatic relegation.

St Eunan’s, on the other hand, will be looking beyond the league and are laying the groundwork for their bid to retain the Dr Maguire Cup, a feat they last achieved in 2009 as part of a three-in-a-row. With their county men and a few others missing, their strength in depth was very much in evidence at the Scarvey. 

Oisin O’Flaherty got the opening score of the game, and Dylan Mulholland got Buncrana’s second point in the 12th minute, but the Eunan’s lads dominated the first half fairly much from start to finish.

Keeper Fintan Doherty’s kickouts were invariably won at centre field where James Kelly and Eoin Dowling were on top, and moved swiftly forward where the clever movement of Aaron Deeney, Dylan Doughan and particularly Eoin McGeehin created a host of chances that they clinically converted.

They led by 0-6 to 0-2 by the 15th minute, but could have been caught for a goal five minutes later when Donal Óg O’Brien kicked a pass to John Campbell out on the right. The big man unleashed a powerful shot from outside the parallelogram but, with keeper Doherty stranded, it struck the angle of crossbar and upright and spun wide.

Eunan’s scored from the next kickout: a clean catch in the middle and Conor Harley was sent through to make it 0-7 to 0-2.

McGeehin added two further points before the break, the first when he looped around to come onto a pass from Kieran Tobin who’d made a huge burst up the field, and the second on the stroke of half time from a free after big Campbell was punished by that damned midfield mark rule when he collided with Dowling at split second after the Eunan’s match had fetched a kickout.

In between those scores, Buncrana’s full back Darragh Corry got an important block on a goalbound shot from Eunan’s defender Noah Barrett.

Buncrana brought on Ryan Bradley at the start of the second half and his presence alone gave them both a better shape and better composure.

James Kelly had won the throw-in and raced forward to point for the Letterkenny side, but John Campbell fired right back, bouncing up after falling to the ground and clipping over from wide on the right.

They followed that up in the 37th minute with Bradley firing over after they’d strung together a string of passes in attack.  

Conor O’Donnell Jnr burst through the centre in the 39th minute and had goal on his mind, but corner back JP McKenna blocked it away, albeit McGeehin did pick up the scraps to swing over his fifth, and St Eunan’s eleventh, point of the game.

Big Campbell hit the game’s only two pointer from play in response, an instinctive kick-on-the-turn from beyond 45 that put Eunan’s manager Barry Meehan in bad form and demanding a man-marking job be carried out on him.

St Eunan’s hit the next four on the spin, McGeehin (2), O’Donnell Jnr and Eoin Dowling, the latter probably unfortunate to see a white one point rather than an orange two point flag raised.

By now, Buncrana had brought on veteran William McLaughlin from the bench and his long diagonal deliveries brought Bradley into the game on the edge of the square.

First, Ryan broke one of Bill’s deliveries down for Campbell to fire over a collector’s item off his right foot. Bradley won the next one too and came back to tip over a 13m free from a mark after he’d blasted wide from open play to leave it 0-15 to 0-8.

Conor O’Donnell Jnr rounded off the scoring, a point from play an a two point free from the ground as St Eunan’s finished the game out and won by ten.

Buncrana scorers: John Campbell 0-4 (one two pt free); Ryan Bradley 0-2 (0-1 mark); Oisin O’Flaherty 0-1, Dylan Mulholland 0-1.

St Eunan’s scorers: Eoin McGeehin 0-7 (2f ); Conor O’Donnell Jnr 0-4 (one 2ptf); James Kelly 0-2; Eoin Dowling 0-2; Dylan Dougan 0-1; Aaron Deeney 0-1; Conor Harley 0-1

Buncrana: Adam Harrigan; JP McKenna, Darragh Corry, Cathal McNutt; Andrew Davison, Michael Gallagher, Donal Óg O’Brien; Peter McLaughlin, John Campbell; Oisin O’Flaherty, Billy Duffy, Liam Jordan; Aaron Cleary, Kevin Treacy, Dylan Mulholland. Subs: Ryan Bradley for K Treacy (half-time); William McLaughlin for D O’Brien (40 mins); Sean Masterson for A Davison (45 mins); Odhran O’Brien Daly for D Mulholland (55 mins); Conor Graham (55 mins).

St Eunan’s: Fintan Doherty; Dara Mulgrew, Eamon Doherty, Noah Barrett; Oran Winston, Ciaran Tobin, Anthony Gallagher; James Kelly, Eoin Downey; Sam Harvey, Aaron Deeney, Dylan Duggan; Eoin McGeehin, Pauric McGettigan, Conor Harley. Subs: Conor O’Donnell Jnr for D Mulgrew (35 mins); Noel O’Donnell for C Harley (42 mins); Josh Hay for D Dougan (49 mins).

Referee: Martin McCormick (Glenfin)