GAA: Edendork overpower Moortown to advance

With only nine minutes left to play at Pomeroy on Friday night the winners were nine points to the good before the Loughshore men grabbed two goals but it only served to put a better look on the scoreboard.

A well-taken Darren McCurry goal divided the two sides at the break and, when substitute Brian McGuckin also found the net ten minutes after the restart, Edendork were well on their way to booking a last eight date with Derrytresk.

The winners had good performances from Donal Maneely, Conor Mallon, Conn Kilpatrick and Harry Og Conlon while Moortown were best served by Christopher McGuigan and Tony Quinn.

Moortown took the lead inside sixty seconds with a monster free from all of fifty five metre out from the boot of Ryan Kelly but that was as good as it got for them. A Darren McCurry free had the sides level and, when Brian Og O’Rourke released the Tyrone attacker in the tenth minute, there was only going to be one outcome - as he fired low to the bottom right hand corner of the net past keeper Colm Spiers.

A Tony Quinn free narrowed the gap but Edendork were looking the better side with impressive midfielder Conlon splitting the posts.

The swirling wind made life difficult for both sets of players with scores at a premium in the first half when time after time the ball was overturned.

McCurry laid the ball out for Niall Morgan to land a superb effort with the outside of his boot but it was Quinn who had the final say of the first half with a neat left footed score to leave it 1-3 to 0-3 at the break.

Edendork would have been more than happy with the way that things were going, as they had played against the wind and they opened the second half scoring from a thirty metre Morgan free.

In the seventh minute Moortown created a goal chance when Karl Hagan found Conan McLernon but the county minor failed to get the connection that he wanted and it was comfortably dealt with by keeper Mark McReynolds.

Three minutes later Edendork took a vice-like grip on proceedings when McGuckin, only on the field for black card victim Brian Og O’Rourke, coolly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the net after Stephen Corr played it in from the right wing.

Sixty seconds later the winners almost got in for another major but this time Spiers produced a brilliant save to deny McCurry his second of the night.

Morgan knocked over a free and centre half back Padraig Donnelly joined the attack to finish off a flowing five man move to leave it 2-6 to 0-3 going into the final quarter.

There was no let-up from Edendork with the hard working Kilpatrick getting a deserved score and straight from the next kick out Sean Donnelly was on target as well.

It took Moortown twenty one minutes to open their second half account when Brian McLernon pulled on a loose ball to send it to the net. With four minutes left to play Edendork were reduced to fourteen men when defender Conor Mallon picked up a second yellow card and while Moortown got a second goal moments later from Kelly it was a case of too little too late for them.

The hardworking Quinn reduced the deficit further from a free but Edendork weren’t to be denied and midfielder Conlon began and finished a move with his second point of the night as Edendork made it safely through to the quarter-finals.