Owen Roes...............................1-5

Castlederg............................0-11

Owen Roes' poor start to the 2008 ACL season continued on Thursday night, as they went down to Castlederg in a rearranged league game. Castlederg led from the second minute and never looked in danger of not collecting both points.

That opening Castlederg point was courtesy of a fine angled kick by the Derg full forward, and when Owen Roes surrendered cheap possession a few minutes later Castlederg were two up. Brendan Boggs opened the home side's account after five minutes, but the visitors were in the ascendancy.

A couple of more scores before the ten minute marking saw the St.Eugene's in control, and indeed they could've done more damage after 11 minutes, but the visiting full forward could only find the side netting after rounding Dylan Early in goal. A mammoth free from the visitor's number nine made the lead four, before Aidan Lynch's second score added to the tally. A Boggs' free condensed the gap, but injuries to Davy Harte and Brendan McCrossan saw them replaced with a third of the game gone.

Twice in a minute Castlederg should've added to their tally, but the O'Neills net minder Early made sharp stops. Lynch turned and scored with time almost up, and when the Castlederg sub fired the kick-out back over the sticks it looked like a comfortable half time lead for the visitors.

However in first half stoppage time Brendan Boggs' free caused consternation in the Castlederg square, and Stephen Boyle was on the spot to smash home to make the half time arrears just three points.

It looked like it was going to be Castlederg's half again as they scored the opening point of the second half after three minutes. However Owen Roes upped the tempo, and Cathal Dooher, and Marcus McGinley started to pick up more possession with forays into the visitors half.

Good defending by Gerard Devine allowed Boggs through for another score, and when the same man replicated after 42 minutes it looked game on. However both sides started to struggle to turn ball into scores, with this suiting the men from the Derg.

With three minutes to go, Castlederg put a goal in it once more with a Lynch free, and when he added another via a majestic left footed effort a minute later the game was up.

Stephen Dooher added a late point for the O'Neills, but despite efforts to engineer a goal chance, it never materialised.