Buncrana beat St. Eunan’s in a tight league encounter in O’Donnell Park Letterkenny on Saturday evening. Two early points from Sean McVeigh for the home team were cancelled out by strikes from Paul Nelson and Dylan Duffy, before the key spell in the game midway through the first half. Oisin Grant pounced for an opportunist goal on 14 minutes, followed by a Duffy penalty one minute later to give Buncrana a six point lead. From that point onwards St. Eunan’s were always chasing the game. Three successive points from McVeigh (2) and Odhran McGonigle narrowed the gap, but a Duffy free leading up to half time left four points between the teams at the interval, 0-5 to 2-3.
McVeigh and Duffy exchanged three frees each early in the second half. PJ McCarron scored a well worked point and Daniel Wison also pointed to move the visitors further ahead. St. Eunan’s came right back into the game in the 45th minute when Odhran McGonigle fired an unstoppable rebound to the net after a Tom Clare save, one of many fine stops by the Buncrana goalkeeper to keep the Letterkenny forwards at bay. McVeigh closed the gap to two points with ten minutes remaining, but Duffy fired two scores, one from play, to maintain the margin. McVeigh set up a tense finish when he ran through the Buncrana defence to goal in the 57th minute. However, a late Lee Duffy point secured a good win for the away team.
St. Eunan’s: Cian Hennessy, Brian McIntyre, Adie Gaffey, John McIntyre, Sean Halvey, Steven Doherty, Ryan Hilferty, Colm Flood, Jack Matthews, Matt Ahern, Thomas Hartnett, Cormac Finn, James Hartnett, Seán McVeigh (1-8, 0-6 frees), Darragh McCarthy. Subs: Odhran McGonigle (1-1), Cian Randles, Lochlainn O’Dea, Joe Greene, Cormac Hartnett, Ciaran Kelly, Aaron O’Connell, Shane Maguire, Kevin Kealy.
Buncrana: Tom Clare, Matthew Wilson, Tommy Mitchell, Oisin Hegarty, James Doherty, Paddy Wilson, Conor Grant, PJ McCarron (0-1), Daniel Wilson (0-1), Aedan Stokes, Paul Nelson (0-1), Dylan Duffy (1-7, 1-5frees), Darren Doherty, Lee Duffy (0-1), Oisin Grant (1-0).
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Sun 21st Apr
