Duleek Bellewstown 1-10  Curraha 0-12

Duleek Bellewstown claimed the local bragging rights with a hard earned victory  when overcoming a seven point deficit as the game entered the final quarter to claim the 2 points on offer and continue their drive for divisional honours.

For a the first 45 minutes it looked as if the home team were going to coast to an easy win as a combination of wayward shooting from the visitors and a better economy in attack from the home side allied to some fine free taking had the home side those 7 points in front at the end of the third quarter.

Playing away from the dressing room end Curraha started brightly and had their direct style of play created three scoring frees which were converted to lead three points to one after 5 minutes. The reply from the visitors came from a John Flood free on three minutes after a foul on Shane Crosby.

Despite having their fair share of possession for the remainder of the half the visitors went into the break 5 points in arrears with home side outscoring them 4 points to 1 with the sole response being a Stephen Nolan free close to half time. 

The second half opened in a similar vein to the first and the home side went two further clear in the opening minutes but the shooting malaise continued to dog the visitors attack and the only respite being a Jamie Flaherty effort in the 9 minute when he drove over after breaking a tackle on the left.

It was during this third quarter when the Duleekbellewstown midfield partnership of Mick Dowling and Eanna Byrne began to gain midfield supremacy by either claiming clean possession or breaking down possession to their attack.  The half back line of Crosby , Clarke and Flaherty also provided a barrier to the Curraha running game and gained a stranglehold in that area.

The scoring recovery began when John Flood pointed after good work on the right from Jamie Crosby and he then claimed a second successive point when a goal looked more likely.  That goal did come with the next attack Gary Reilly broke up a promising Curraha attack and after some interplay John McDonnell, who had been well marshalled up to that point, broke clear of his marker and buried the ball to the roof of the net. Another McDonnell then had the gap down to a single point but 2 further pointed frees from the home side had that cushion back to three as the game edged to the finish line and it looked as if the they had weathered the storm

The visitors however had other ideas and restored the momentum with another  Flood free and a trademark Shane Crosby point from the right to have just the bare minimum in it with 5 minutes to go. Another Flood point brought the sides level and after winning the breaking ball from the subsequent  kick out John Flood was fouled and he kicked the resultant free over to get in front for the first time as the clocked ticked down . The home side did have an opportunity to level things up but a 45 was kicked wide.

The core of this victory was the pure desire to keep going and doing the simple things even when the end result was not the expected outcome.

Duleek Bellewstown: A Dowling, D Teeling, D Moore, K McCann, S Crosby (0-1), R Clarke,  J Brannigan, Eanna Byrne, M Dowling, J Crosby, J Flood (0-6), S Townley,  J McDonnell (1-1), S Nolan (0-3), J Flaherty for J Brannigan, J Roche for S Townley, P McGroggan for J Roche

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