Longstone And Ford Battle To A Draw

From the glorious sunshine before the game, dark clouds trundled through the valleys between the peaks, slowly taking them out of view one by one and the rain was teeming down within ten minutes of the start. The opening score came within three seconds as Ambrose Rogers won the throw in and found Stephen Doran who pointed. Bryansford then moved three one ahead with Ciaran Brannigan, Joe Ireland and Chris Clarke all taking good scores. A long distance free from Barry Doran had the gap at the minimum but Mark Poland should have hit the net a minute after when he got behind the Ford defence only to be denied by a superb Peter Travers save. An easy Ciaran Brannigan free then a lovely Danny Savage point and another score from Ciaran Brannigan which just about crept inside the post had the score looking pretty impressive but a Barry Doran free and a Mark Poland point proved a sound response. A Barry Doran free was sandwiched between Chris Brannigan points – one a free, one a spectacular effort from the corner. Longstone were surviving on Barry Doran frees and after another of those Ryan Kelly landed a magnificent point beating four men on his run and then sending the ball on its way over. Brian King and Ambrose Rogers traded points to leave Bryansford one up at the interval. The second half began well for the Ford too, Conor Poland spilled a ball, Kalum King collected it and stuck it over the bar. A 45 from Ambrose Rogers and another Barry Doran free had things all square and Ciaran Doran should have hit the net but was denied by another excellent stop from Travers in the Ford goal. Longstone did however take the lead when Conor Poland broke forward, fumbled the ball then retrieved it and shot it between the sticks and then his brother Mark also pointed. A glorious goal chance for Bryansford went begging and a quick break had the stone down the field and Ciaran Brannigan’s point was cancelled out by another from Ambrose Rogers. Chris Brannigan pointed from away out the field before Ryan Kelly restored the three point advantage for the stone. Kalum King had a snapshot over the bar before Timmy Hanna streaked through and drove low to the home net. Longstone got a draw on the final whistle with a Barry Doran free but it was richly deserved and Longstone got a valuable point in the battle to stay up.