BUNCRANA CRUISED to victory over a disappointing Malin in the clash of Inishowen’s senior clubs at the Scarvey on Sunday afternoon. There was only a point between these two sides in both of last year’s league encounters, with each side winning on the other’s patch, and with the half-time score 0-4 to 0-3 in favour of the home side, it looked as though the crowd would be treated to another nail-biter. It was not to be as Buncrana, who’d hit eight first half-wides, belatedly found their range to pull clear of Louis Walsh’s side in the second half.

The sides split six points up to the 20th minute of a match, uneventful to that point except for a nasty injury to Malin forward Anthony Kelly, who was withdrawn from the match after sustaining a gash to the left hand.
Kelly went all out to keep the ball from crossing the sideline on the terrace side of the pitch and, after back heeling the ball, was unable to put on the brakes and his cheek hit the poll on the fence with a sickening thud, cutting his shielding left hand on the fence in the process. It’s not the first time a player has clattered into the siding in front of the terrace at the Scarvey. The gap to the fence is over two feet longer on the opposite side of the pitch and perhaps a re-alignment might be in order.
Buncrana had the better of the opening exchanges, and with Malin’s half-back line turning over the ball with uncharacteristic regularity, chance after chance presented itself to the home team.
However, Buncrana were guilty of a number of bad misses. County men Ryan Bradley and Odhran Doherty popped over scores from play, but time and again the home side let Malin off the hook. On 18 minutes, with Malin in disarray, Ryan Bradley seemed certain to find the net only for Declan Lafferty to deny the full-forward with a superb save, diving high to his right.

Sure-shot Anthony Kelly kept Malin on touch with a couple of frees before his afternoon came to a premature end. His replacement, Eddie Kelly hit his side’s first score from play in the 20th minute. Paddy Kelly and Michael Doherty lost out to Daragh Irwin and Paul McGonigle in the battle for the centre of the field. Malin were seldom seen operating inside the Buncrana 45 metre line. Oisin Doherty’s 27th minute point from play ensured Stephen McFadden’s men went into the interval ahead.

The hosts took the game by the scruff of the neck at the start of the second half and put three points between the sides when the roving Ryan Bradley played a fine cross-field pass from the right to David Bell who fired over. In every area of the park the home side were half a step quicker than their rivals, whether it was David Bell nipping in front of his marker up top, Paul McGonigle charging down kicks in the middle of the field or John Doherty anticipating the danger and snuffing it out in the full-back line. The flow of play was mostly one way. Christy Bell teed up Irwin to make it 0-8 to 0-4 before Buncrana took complete charge with a 51st minute goal, and again it was Bradley that unlocked the Malin defence, playing a deft pass over the full-back to Paul McGonigle, and although the ex-Donegal midfielder’s stinging drive was saved by Lafferty, David Bell was in the right place to side-foot the ball home.

The stop-start nature of the play in the second half did clearly did not suit the visitors, and they can point to Buncrana’s seven bookings (including a late second yellow for Stephen McGonigle) to their own two as evidence of their opponents more cynical approach.
With Buncrana’s backs in total charge, and Declan Walsh and Charlie Byrne reduced to soloing down cul-de-sacs, there was never any threat of a late rally from Connolly Park outfit, who were a shadow of the side so impressive in beating Termon a fortnight previous.
Buncrana put the exclamation point on this statement of intent with late points from substitute Gavin McConnell, Garbhan Friel and another from the impressive Odhran Doherty on a day when the fortunes of Ireland’s northern-most club went south.

Malin Team:
Declan Lafferty; Kevin McColgan, Damian Harkin, Robert Porter; Charlie Byrne, John McLaughlin, Declan Walsh; Paddy Kelly, Michael Doherty; Danny Lafferty, Anthony Kelly, Damien Ward; Paddy McColgan, Conor Farren, Gary Farren. Subs: Eddie Kelly for A. Kelly (10), Michael Byrne for Lafferty (48), Christopher McLaughlin for E. Kelly (48).

Buncrana Team
Adam Fletcher; Matthew O’Donnell, John Doherty, Ronan Doherty; Oisin Doherty Ciaran McCallum, Garbhan Friel; Paul McGonigle, Daragh Irwin; Odhran Doherty, Christy McDermott, David Bell; Adrian Doherty Ryan Bradley, Stephen McGonigle. Subs: Christy Bell for A. Doherty (HT), Gavin McConnell for McDermott (54).

(Report by Simon McGeady, Inishowen Independent)

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