Post date: Feb 23, 2017 7:50:18 PM
ABBEY RANGERS V RHEBAN MINOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE ROUND 1 22nd February 2017
Abbey Rangers Minor footballers got the League off to a winning start in Ballykelly on Wednesday night with a hard fought win over Rheban. With Storm Doris showering rain upon the country all day, it was a late call to actually go ahead with the game given the heavy underfoot conditions.
A long ball from Eoin O’Fearghail led to Daniel Gilbert getting our first score of the season and Daniel followed with another point soon afterwards. Rheban pulled a point back before a penalty goal put them two ahead as we reached the mid-point of the half.
A great move involving Stephen Keogh, Robert McGrath and Daniel Gilbert culminated in an Abbey Rangers penalty which Stephen duly dispatched to put us back in the lead again. A Rheban equaliser was quickly cancelled out by Stephen Keogh who pointed to leave us 1.3 to 1.2 up at half time.
We got a superb start to the second half and played some great football despite the dreadful conditions. Robert McGrath fired over a long range point and Daniel Gilbert and Mikey Delahunt added further scores to put us four ahead. An Alan O’Connell shot for a point was half blocked by the advancing Rheban goalkeeper and as the ball spun high into the square, Robert McGrath just about got above the Rheban full back to knock the ball over the line for a second Rangers goal.
Stephen Keogh added another point and we then missed a number of opportunities to kill the game off as we entered the final minutes. A Rheban goal following a goalmouth scramble started the nerves jangling and Paddy Nicholls had to be at his best to keep another goal bound shot out. It was backs to the wall for us for the last few minutes as Rheban pointed two more frees but the final whistle sounded at 2.7 to 2.4 in favour of Abbey Rangers.
It was a real gutsy performance from our lads who showed massive spirit to get the win. Pure hard work from the likes of Daniel Cawley, Liam Kehoe, Mikey Delahunt and Eoin O’Feargail was the basis for the win and well done to them all.
Our next game is away to Castlemitchell on Friday night (depending on what Doris does in the mean time!).
Declan McGrath