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Gortin And Owen Roes Serve Up North Tyrone Cracker

Sunday 23.08.2020
Team Talk Mag
Championship Football


Sometimes in sport as in life life you find yourself in just the right place at the right time and feel lucky because of it. Anyone who was in Newtownstewart on Sunday evening for the first round championship game between Gortin and Owen Roes must surely have felt like that. This was without question the game of the championship so far with both teams giving absolutely everything in search of victory. It had it all; skill, commitment, intensity, great scores, near misses, controversial decisions, big hits, tough tackles, drama of the highest order and a game that ebbed and flowed with each passing minute.

There was little between the sides throughout a very physical first half.  Sean Òg Mc Aleer opened the scoring with a free inside the first minute. That lead lasted for seven minutes before a superb score from Tony Devine tied the game only for Mc Aleer to edge Gortin ahead again a minute later. Owen Roes corner back Ruairi Boylan then drove forward to clip over a superb levelling score with eleven minutes of the first half gone.

The exchanges were tough and uncompromising with no quarter asked or given. It was old fashioned championship football played at breakneck speed. Sean Mc Kenna floated over a fine score to put Gortin in front again but back came Owen Roes with a Stephen Kelly equaliser. Gortin were back in front two minutes later when Eoghan Mc Garvey got on the end of a great move to hit his first point of the game and make it 0-4 to 0-3 in Gortin’s favour. Owen Roes maintained their style of play and work rate to hit the next three points in a row courtesy of Conor O’Neill (2) and Tony Devine. With half time rapidly approaching it seemed they would go in at the break leading by two only for veteran Shane Clarke to pop over a neat Gortin point and leave the half time score 0-6 to 0-5 in favour of the Leckpatrick outfit.

The pace remained relentless after the restart as both teams went at it again. Conor O’Neill landed his third point of the game to  stretch the Owen Roes lead to two. Man of the match Ruairi Keenan was enjoying a real battle with Tony Devine and his ability to force turnover ball proved central to his team getting back into the game. The big midfielder pointed to narrow the gap to one before Ciaran Brolly fired to the net to put Gortin 1-6 to 0-7 ahead.

Lesser teams might have buckled as the momentum appeared to be changing but Gerard Devine scored two points in as many minutes before Niall Mc Aleer opened his account to put Owen Roes ahead again leading 0-10 to 1-6.

Gortin hit four of the next five points as Brolly and Mc Aleer began to find space in the Owen Roes rearguard. Peter Kirk pointed to keep Barry Tracey’s side in the race but it was beginning to look like Gortin were on their way to the quarter finals. Ronan Parker entered the game in time to watch Brolly and Mc Aleer extend the Gortin lead to four.
With time almost up Conor O’Neill pointed to leave three points between the teams. Still Owen Roes refused to panic and they were rewarded when Parker won the ball fifteen yards from goal. He drilled the ball low and hard across the square where it found Niall Mc Aleer in space and in front of the goals. Mc Aleer stuck his foot out and deflected the ball into the net to send the Owen Roes subs and supporters wild. It quite literally was the last kick of the game and with the light fading fast extra time was required.

Unfortunately for Owen Roes they were unable to find the energy to lift themselves for extra time. They managed only a solitary point during the twenty minutes while Eoghan Mc Garvey, Niall Mc Ginn, Sean Óg Mc Aleer and Shane Clarke scored to stretch the Gortin tally to 1-19. Both teams were dead on their feet at the end of what was a fantastic game of football.

Final score Gortin 1-19, Owen Roes 1-13.

Scorers: Gortin- Sean Óg Mc Aleer 0-8, Sean Mc Kenna 0-1, Eoghan Mc Garvey 0-3, Shane Clarke 0-2, Ruairi Keenan 0-1, Ciaran Brolly 1-2, Peter Keenan 0-1, Niall Mc Ginn 0-1,

Owen Roes: Tony Devine 0-2, Ruairi Boylan 0-1, Stephen Kelly 0-1, Conor O’Neill  0-5, Gerard Devine 0-2, Niall Mc Aleer 1-1, Peter Kirk 0-1

 

 

 

 

 

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