Match reports on recent Senior and reserve championship games
Reserves Sail On As Seniors Flounder.
Marty Kelly seems to have things sorted with the Desertmartin reserves. He led by example on Friday night last at Slaughtneil where the ‘martins’ defeated Foreglen on a score of 3-10 to 1-07, the first goal coming from Marty himself. Desertmartin dominated the mid-field throughout the game, defence was solid as accurate shooting from the forwards saw Desertmartin lead by six points at the break. In the second half the ‘Martins put the game beyond the reach of Foreglen with a brace of goals. They should have had more as some very scorable shots drifted wide of the target, the shooters not being under any great pressure. Some changes were introduced in the last quarter as fresh legs piled on the pressure on a wilting Foreglen team. The final score : Desertmartin 3-10, Foreglen 1-07. Well done to Marty and the backroom boys for a job well done.
The Seniors unfortunately did not enjoy the same pleasures as the reserves when they were defeated by a single point by Foreglen at Banagher last Sunday evening. Their is a saying that the man who never made a mistake never learned anything. Well this senior team last year exited the championship in the first round and this year near identical tactics by Foreglen saw their demise at the same point. Foreglen never lost the lead in the entire game although Desermartin did manage to draw level in the latter stages of the game. At the end of the first half Foreglen lead by two points. probably should have led by more but for poor shooting and a good save from Liam bradley.
Our defence got switched around by a Foreglen team determined not to let Eamon McBride play in his accustom role of full back. In the process they isolated one man on their full forward and used him as a target man for the entire game. This of course brings back memories of last years championship defeat where under similar circumstances one of our full back line was faced with a one on one encounter which ultimately destroyed us that night and so did the same this time around. The big question being, should we not have dropped someone into the hole between our half backs and full back. Even with this obvious tactical move being missed, we still enjoyed the biggest majority of the possession in the second half and should really have made it count. On no less than three occasions Desertmartin had chances to take their easy points to increase their lead, however instead the players choice on these occasions was found to be incorrect. Desertmartin certainly played the better football in the second half but moving Ruari Murray to the full back line limited our attacks and that Achilles heal of not taking our scores ultimately sealed our fate.