There’s no separating the teams in a blustery Ulster Intermediate Final.

The AIB All Ireland Club Championship Ulster Intermediate Final was always going to be close game but we didn’t realise it would be so low scoring thanks to the blustery conditions in Granemore on Sunday afternoon.

  Clonduff

Both teams are well known for having free scoring forwards, Clonduff have Sara Lousie Carr in full forward and Paula Gribben in centre half forward, two players who are usually deadly from any position while Eglish boast Ciara Donnelly on the half forward line and Julie Lagan coming through from midfield. Unfortunately for Clonduff in the first half chances were few and far between with Eglish dominating in attack and getting off to a strong start going up 1-01 to 0-0 early on. Clonduff only managed their first score of the day from a free by Sara Louise Carr after 25 minutes, perhaps this says a lot about the weather conditions on the day. But Eglish were happy to make the most of the advantage they had in the first half, hitting back with a point followed by another goal on the 28th minute. Clonduff were unable to hit back before the break as Eglish went in 2-02 to 0-01 up.

  Eglish

 Eglish will feel that they should have taken more from the first half, with Ciara Donnelly scoring everything while Clonduff done well to limit the damage thanks to strong defending led by Clare McGilligan in half back.  This isn’t the first time Clonduff have been in this position at the break as they were down by a point in the Down final against Portaferry and came out in the second half to win by 9 points with Portaferry failing to score in the second half.

  Both captains with referee Eamon Cassidy

As expected Clonduff started the second half on top, hitting back with a point then Sara Louise Carr managed to get a goal six minutes into the second half to leave it Eglish 2-02 Clonduff 1-02. Clonduff continued to push throughout the second half and eventually grabbed two more points to leave Eglish with a one point advantage with only a few minutes left. Clonduff will be disappointed with their performance in the second half but the Eglish full back line was magnificent thanks to some phenomenal defending from Brenda Horsfield. Clonduff continued to push for the equaliser and will be thankful Lisa McPolin took her chance in injury time to level the tie. The game finished a draw, Clonduff 1-05 Eglish 2-02, and in such tough conditions this was a fair result. Lets just hope we have better weather on Sunday 2nd November for the replay so this tie can live up to such high expectations.