Carrickmacross 2-14 Doohamlet 2-10 A more forceful and focused Carrickmacross deservedly advanced to the quarter-finals of the senior football championship and in the process dumped a somewhat out of sorts Doohamlet out of this season's competition in what was overall a fairly low-key and at times scrappy encounter in Clontibret on Sunday evening last. Carrickmacross were only headed once in the entire contest and that about midway through the first half when Doohamlet's best period saw them hit four points without reply between the 8th and 17th minutes. Thereafter Carrickmacross took an increasing hand and by the early stages of the second half they had created the platform for victory with two purple patches either side of half-time yielding 1-3 piece to bring them from being five points to three in arrears after 17 minutes of the first half to leading by 10 points seven minutes into the second. Doohamlet were forced to make a couple of late changes due to the unavailability of Ciaran McManus and Paul McArdle and in their absence they struggled somewhat in midfield where James Conlon and Gary McEnaney both worked hard for the winners. Mark McNally epitomised the Carrickmacross approach with a strong aggressive performance at centre back and he had good support from Paul Noone at full-back along with Owen Duffy on the left. The areas though where there was the most marked difference between the sides was in attack where the Downey brothers, Sean and Mark, gave Carrickmacross a foothold in the half forward line with Stephen Gollogly, who was back following suspension, working ceaselessly throughout and was often the vital link between defence and attack. For Doohamlet too many simple things just went wrong and they often contrived to play themselves into trouble through over elaboration or allowing simple passing movements to break down through unforced errors with the result that they struggled to put anything like a cohesive game together particularly in attack. Shane McManus and Ollie Hughes worked hard as did Ted Duffy and Niall J. Connolly along with Mark Murphy but it was only a late rally that yielded a goal and two points in the final two minutes of normal time and a couple of minutes of stoppage time that left the outcome giving the impression that the game as a contest was much closer than it actually was. Teams and Scorers: Carrickmacross: Niall McCarthy, John McNally, Paul Noone, Owen Duffy, Paul Conlon 0-1, Mark McNally, James McGeown, James Conlon, Gary McEnaney, Paddy Lonergan 0-1, Sean Downey 1-5 (1f), Mark Downey 1-0, Stephen Gollogly 0-4, Andrew Callan 0-1 (f), Seamus Mulholland 0-2. Subs: Timmy Lonergan for M Downey, Ronan McMahon for J McGeown, Ronan Gollogly for S Mulholland, David Fox for S Downey. Doohamlet: James Casey, Kevin McArdle, Gabie Casey, Shane J Connolly, Niall Jim Connolly, Glen Cumiskey, Darren Connolly, Colm Walsh, Martin Hughes, Emmet McManus, Shane McManus 0-1, Ollie Hughes, Ted Duffy 0-2, Mark Murphy 0-4 (2f), Niall J Connolly 2-3. Subs: Greg Duffy for E McManus, Colin Connolly for N Jim Connolly, Gavin Duffy for G Casey, Rory McManus for O Hughes, Paraic Marray for S McManus. Referee: Damien Helferty (Truagh). Tweet

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