Cushendall Win Under 21 Hurling Championship

Cushendall 2-13 Loughgiel 1-14

A goal two minutes into injury time by Cushendall midfielder Alex Delargy snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Monday evening’s Under 21 Hurling final against Loughgiel at Pairc MacUilin, Ballycastle. 

With time almost up and Loughgiel leading by a point the Ruairi Og fans were shouting at Delargy to put the ball over the bar when he gained possession twenty metres from goal. 

A point would have brought the game to extra time but Delargy had other ideas and he went for the jugular. It initially appeared he would be denied when Loughgiel substitute Conal Kerr brilliantly ‘hooked’ Delargy as he went to fire the ball to the net but as the sliothar bobbled across the ‘square’ the midfielder somehow was able to flick it over the line, despite lying face-down on the ground, to send the Ruairi Og fans into raptures.

It was a cruel blow for the Shamrocks who for most of the second half had looked like they would upset the odds against the pre-match favourites, but Cushendall refused to lie down and in the final seconds they got that little bit of luck that’s needed to seal the win. 

In a perfect midsummer evening, before a big crowd, Cushendall got off to cracking start when Christy McNaughton fired a penalty to the Loughgiel net following a head high tackle on corner forward Ed McQuillan, but Loughgiel fought back and they hit the front on eighteen minutes when centre-forward Maol Connolly kicked the ball to the net for his team’s goal. 

The remainder of the half was nip and tuck as both teams exchanged points but an Ed McQuillan point just before the break gave the Ruairis a 1-7 to 1-6 interval lead. 

Loughgiel came back strongly in the second half and four unanswered points between the fortieth and forty fifth minutes put them a goal clear and apparently in control, but a series of pointed frees from Christy McNaughton kept them in touch. 

Two excellent points by corner forward Conor Dallas appeared to have put Loughgiel in command going down the finishing straight but two Christy McNaughton points cut the deficit to a single point before Delargy’s goal sealed the deal and brought the Under 21 title back to Cushendall for the second time in three years.

**Match Report by John McIlwaine