Wins For Errigal And Cookstown In Power NI Semis.

Saturday 22.09.2012

Club

A huge crowd turned up to see this afternoon’s Power NI Intermediate and Senior semi finals in Pomeroy. Played in fine autumn weather Cookstown did more than enough to outfox Rock who in spite of an impressive start struggled to open up the Cookstown defence. Marty Murray, Ryan Pickering and Stevie Monaghan were outstanding for the Fr Rocks as they helped repel attack after attack from Rock. Cookstown’s ability to turn defence into attack put their opponents on the backfoot for most of the second half. Shea Mc Garrity and Conor Mullen became increasingly important figures for their side and when they scored a fortuitous second goal the game was up for Rock. Cookstown finished 2-8 to 0-8 winners and will now look forward to a final meeting with Eskra.
Following this game Errigal Ciaran took on Carrickmore in a match that saw three sendings off and plenty of incident before the Dunmoyle side came from behind late on to win by a point. Carrickmore began well but were wasteful in attack missing several chances of scores. The first point of the game did not arrive until the tenth minute from the boot of Peter Harte but within four minutes Errigal were three ahead.
It took Carrickmore twenty two minutes to open their account when Finbar Magill converted a forty five but a second point almost immediately from the same player left only a point between them. With half time rapidly approaching Errigal got a huge break when the ball came back off the post from a free before falling to Brian Horisk allowing the big full forward finished to the net at the second time of asking. Errigal came close to adding a second goal when Damien Mc Dermott and Horisk again combined but were denied by some brave defending. By this time Carrickmore were down to fourteen men following a straight red card for centre back Kieran Mc Aleer.
The half time whistle came at the right time for Carrickmore and allowed them time to reorganise and refocus their efforts. A couple of positional switches including moving Johnathan Munroe into the defence gave them the edge in the second half. Four points in a row from the men in green and gold saw them level the game as they fought for every ball and began to boss the game with Munroe increasingly prominent.
A free in the twentieth minute from Tommy Canavan put Errigal in front again as the tempo of the game and the intensity of the challenges rose yet again. However Carrickmore could sense momentum was with them and when Ciaran Mc Ginley received a second yellow Carmen pushed home their numerical advantage. Two well hit frees from Caolan Daly put Carrickmore ahead for the first time with the thirty minutes almost up. However Errigal dug deep and late scores from Daisy Mc Dermott and substitute Darren Canavan took Errigal through to the Power NI Senior Final. Final score Errigal Ciaran 1-7, Carrickmore 0-9.