Hodson Bay SFC Round 3 (Group B): Western Gaels 5-13 St. Faithleachs 0-14
Western Gaels’ winning run in Group B of the senior championship shows no sign of abating after a very comfortable win against St. Faithleach’s in difficult weather conditions at Frenchpark on Sunday evening last. The writing was on the wall for the Ballyleague side at half-time when the home side had played against the elements and still led by 3-3 to 0-9.
As expected in the second half The Gaels pulled away to win easily, Faithleach’s as expected were strong up front but their problems lie further back the field in defence. Ciaráin Murtagh was deadly accurate from frees and with Diarmuid Murtagh and Darragh Hussey also doing well they scored some great points. But conceding goals to Cathal Cregg (who played well) in the opening minute and to James McDonnell in the 29th minute undid all their good work. Indeed when ‘man of the match’ Donal Ward scored his side’s third goal before half-time and Cathal Cregg and Niall Higgins added points, it sent the home side in leading by three at the break.
Western Gaels stretched their lead in the second half at will with further goals coming from Niall Higgins and Cathal Cregg and a string of excellent points particularly from Kevin Higgins. Western Gaels have cruised into the quarter-finals while St. Faithleach’s will now be looking over their shoulders towards the bottom of the table after two losses in a row.
Western Gaels: P Cummins; S Conry, B Cafferky, N Murray; D McGarry, S McDermott, C Cafferky; M Higgins, J Duffy; K Higgins (0-4), N Higgins (1-5), D Ward (1-2); T Gill, J McDonnell (1-0), C Cregg (2-2), Subs: F Cregg for McDonnell, B Creighton for McGarry, D Moran for Gill, T Mahon for B Cafferky, A Dowd for Murray.
St. Faithleach’s: A Manning; D Harrison, D McCormack, M Cox; J Walsh, C Quinn, A McCormack; B Murtagh, A Dooney; K Farrell, C Murtagh (0-8), D Rooney (0-1); D Murtagh (0-2), D Hussey (0-2), H Kenny. Subs: B Scally for Harrison, D Murray for A McCormack, C McCormack for Walsh, J Hussey for Dooney, S Ormsby for Cox, A Kenny (0-1) for Rooney.
Referee: Kevin Naughton.
