The seniors made it two wins from two in the Armagh League with a good win over Naomh Moninne of Louth who made the long journey from Dundalk to Páirc Chlochóg on Tuesday evening (25/04/23). The sod was in good condition given the recent heavy rain and contributed well to what was an entertaining hour’s hurling with our lads edging the contest on a 2-17 to 3-07 scoreline.

Tony O'Hagan, operating at full forward for the second game in a row followed on from his two majors last week by raising the first green flag of the evening to settle the Black and Red into the game. He was ably assisted in the full forward line by Rory Poncánach agus Oisín Mór with both men contributing points to add to our first half tally.

Paul Greville, making his first competitive appearance of the season, was in fine form as well in the half back line and contributed a long range point to the Cilles’ cause in the first half. Further points from each of the half forward line of Conor Doherty, Gary Mulgrew and Rónán Maguire had the score reading 1-09 to 1-04 in favour of the Black and Red at the short whistle.

The second half was slow to get going with almost eleven minutes on the clock before the first score was registered. The Leinster men, playing against a Tyrone team in the Armagh League!, made our lads fight hard for the points and reeled in sizeable NCC leads on two occasions before a final scoring burst in the last five minutes, with the pick of the scores being a goal from the camán of Gary Mulgrew, sealed the seven point win.

Overall, it was a decent performance by NCC with Oisín Mór and Gary Mulgrew continuing their good scoring form up front. Rónán Maguire was a constant presence for NCC along with Vinny McCann and Ryan Dubh in the middle third. Paul Greville, who finished the evening with four points and brought stability to the half back line was ably assisted by John McGuigan at centre half back and Darragh Coney on the other wing. Our young full back line coped rightly under the high ball throughout and Paddy McCusker played well between the sticks, repelling and propelling attacks throughout the evening.

Next up for O’Farrell’s charges is a trip around the southern shores of Lough Neagh to take on Seán Treacy’s of Lurgan next Tuesday evening. Beir bua!

Foireann NCC: Paddy McCusker, Shéa Devlin, Seán O’Neill, Tighearnáin Daly, Darragh Coney, John McGuigan, Paul Greville (0-4), Ryan Dubh O'Neill, Vinny McCann, Conor Doherty (0-1), Gary Mulgrew (1-3), Rónán Maguire (0-1), Oisín Mór Ó Néill (0-6), Tony O'Hagan (1-0), Rory Poncánach Ó Néill (0-1)

Fir Ionaid: Peter Corr (0-1) for Rory, Daniel Taffe for Rónán Maguire, Jarlath Canavan for Darragh Coney, Eric Kirwan, Irwin Donnellan