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Total Stories: 27 Published: Thu, Jul 17, 2008

Newtown sharp shooters down O'Neills

Newtownstewart .............1-14

Owen Roes ..........................0-4

A DARK and gloomy sky greeted the footballers of Newtownstewart and Owen Roes last Wednesday evening in the latest round of the ACL. However after a hour's football the sun shone on the home side, as the foreboding sky continued to parallel the Owen Roe's season.

The home side hit the ground running in the wet, and raced into an early 0-3 to no-score lead as midfielders Boyle twice, and Gallagher impressively dissected the posts. Aidan McCrossan pulled one back for Owen Roes as they struggled to gain any sort of foothold in the game.

The St Eugene's continued to dominate proceedings, as McCrossan again was the only reply to a Newtownstewart triple salvo with Dean Arnold among the point scorers.

Indeed the hosts tagged on two more points to end the half 0-8 to 0-2 ahead.

With the aid of a stiff enough wind Owen Roes would've came out fancying their chances of closing the gap in the second period. However lacking any semblance of a fight, Newtown were allowed to control the game for the duration of the thirty minutes.

An early point got the hosts away, and within five minutes of the restart they had tagged on a goal as the Owen Roes defence went walkabouts leaving Dylan Early exposed in nets to a easy one-on-one opportunity that was dispatched with aplomb.

Within minutes the contest was over as the St Eugene's stretched their lead with three further scores. Kiernan Kelly and sub Ronan Parker added to the meagre Owen Roes tally late on, but Newtownstewart immediately cancelled these off with two scores of their own.

To compound a miserable night for the O'Neills captain Declan McCrossan was forced to leave the fray with a bad injury early in the second period, and looks set to rule him out of the rest of the season.

This was easily Owen Roes poorest performance of the season, with not a single player emerging with any credit. The Newtownstewart attacking unit gave a lesson in converting points but were allowed acres of space to operate, and the Owen Roes forward line were toothless for the entire duration.

With the Championship first round on Friday 25th July just two weeks away, the players must now try and pick themselves up and get the bit between their teeth.

Owen Roes: Dylan Early, Paul Kelly, Kevin Doherty, Brendan McCrossan, Michael Caldwell, Gerard Devine, Ryan Stewart, Marcus McGinley, Chris Kelly, Declan McCrossan, Clarke Stephenson, Kiernan Kelly (0-1), John Harper, Stephen Boyle, Aidan McCrossan (0-2). Subs: Ronan Parker for Stephen Boyle (30 mins), Davy Harte for Declan McCrossan (43 mins), Gerard McShane, Sean og Devine, Cathal Dooher for Stewart, Caldwell and Harper (50 mins).

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