Belcoo 0-08 Maguiresbridge 0-10

Maguiresbridge caused the upset of the opening round of the Intermediate championship as they came from behind to beat Belcoo in their own backyard.

With Tempo and Roslea drawing in the other game in the group, it leaves the Bridge top of the pile.

Belcoo went into the competition as the highest-ranked team following their survival in Division One while Maguiresbridge were at the other end having finished eighth in Division Two.

But it was the Bridge who imposed themselves early on with Ryan Hyde dominating in the middle of the park and also causing a nuisance during his many forays into the full forward line.

Reacting to the win, Bridge manager, Adrian Diver said: “Good to get the win. The lads have trained well since the end of the league and we felt that we were in with a chance.

“We knew we would get nothing easy against Belcoo, especially at their ground and that we would need to work hard for everything we got. We had a couple of good goal chances in the first half which we didn’t take but we were getting into the right positions for those chances and we knew if we kept doing that, we would get the results. “Defensively we were excellent, almost all their scores were from frees, that’s something we will need to improve on next week, but we did limit them to very few chances from play.

“I was pleased for young Mark Hughes who scored two difficult frees near the end to win us the game, he stood up when it counted and showed a lot of courage,” said Diver who also paid tribute to debutants Eoin Mulligan, Darragh McPhillips, Mark Johnston and Luke St. Ledger: “Each of them put in a massive shift and were excellent today and are a credit to the work being done at underage level at this club.

“Roslea will be a different test next week but a win like that today will help the lads believe that we can win big games and we can do something in this championship.”

The Bridge went 0-02 to no score ahead with their opening score coming from a move all the way up the pitch before the balled was laid off to Barry Flanagan and he fired over.

Then a high ball in was well won by Hyde who spun and pointed when a goal may have been on.

A turnover by Belcoo led to a quick ball and a foul on Eoin Corrigan which he then pointed.

Both sides missed chances before Conor McAloon converted another free for the home side but the Bridge responded.

A shot from Luke St. Ledger came off the post and Hyde reacted quickest to lay off to Darragh McPhillips who pointed to make it 0-03 to 0-02.

Ciarán Flaherty hit Belcoo’s third free in response and then they went in front with a quick break involving Eoin Shiels, Josh Kilillea and Dan O’Connor before Lawrence McKeown pointed.

McKeown repeated the trick shortly after to make it a two-point game.

A mishit free from Mark Hughes somehow bounced over the bar to cut the deficit but McAloon rounded off the scoring with a well-hit placed ball to leave it 0-06 to 0-04.

It took a while but Belcoo resumed the scoring in the second half as build-up play saw Shiels play in Gerard McHugh and the corner-back pointed.

But Hughes responded with a free for the Bridge following a foul on Flanagan.

Flaherty hit a point in response to make it 0-08 to 0-05 after 42 minutes but this was to be Belcoo’s last score of the game.

Hughes hit another free to leave three in it but Belcoo could have been further ahead with their next attack.

Some slick passing saw Michael Burns jink through but his shot came back off the post and away to safety.

The a long ball in from Caolan Duffy was flicked over by Hyde and there was only a score in it.

The closing stages of the game saw Hughes step up for the Bridge with three converted frees to seal the game.

The first saw Josh Kilillea black carded to add to his yellow card and he was off for a foul on Sean Corrigan.

Another foul called by the referee on Corrigan was again pointed to move the Bridge in front and then a foul on Duffy was well struck by Hughes to move his side two in front and they were able to hold out for a huge win.

Belcoo Manager, Mickey McGillen, was “bitterly disappointed” with the result and believed his side were complacent.

“I thought we had prepared properly for the game. We tried to cancel out the complacency but in my opinion, complacency was our biggest downfall “We probably just went through the motions and thought we were going to get over the line. Going in at half-time two points up we didn’t kick on in the second half.

“Could never get Maguiresbridge out of sight and they thoroughly deserved the win.”

Tempo are up next for Belcoo, with McGillen adding: “An uphill battle now that we have to win our two games so our concentration will be for Tempo next Sunday.

“Hopefully, we’ll bounce back, regroup draw a line and prepare for Tempo.”