Redhills 2-14

Belturbet 0-10

Redhills produced the first shock of this summer's club championships after trouncing Belturbet with 10 points to spare in this evening's intermediate clash at Kingspan Breffni Park.

Luke McEntee's early goal gave Paul Sherlock's side a dream start in this derby as they kicked on for a seven-point half-time lead and sealed their shock upset once midfield veteran Derek Fay bagged their second with 10 minutes to go.

Belturbet, tipped as legitimate contenders for the Tommy Gilroy Cup as they currently sit top of Division Two in the ACFL, were made to rue a disastrous start in this one, as well as the early second-half sending off of versatile figure Mark Teevan, relying heavily on free-taker Enda Henry (0-8) for their scores.

Redhills got the opportunity to open their account four minutes in after Danny Anscombe over carried possession in front of his goal and Turloc Mooney knocked over the resultant free.

Packie Leddy doubled it from the resultant kick out and two minutes later the former Cavan senior sent an onrushing McEntee through to palm the ball past Anscombe and secure the border men's dream start in this championship opener.

Andrew Dunne made it a six-point game before Belturbet - operating with Cian Vaughan at full-forward and Teevan around the centre - nailed on their first accurate response through a Henry free in the 14th minute.

Leddy sidestepped his man brilliantly for Redhills' fourth point of the evening, with another chance of a goal on, and when Cormac Brides rose highest to punch over Mooney's diagonal ball the underdogs were seven up.

Henry (free) and Donal McDonald pulled back two sorely required scores for the Rories as half-time approached but Redhills, with Rory Dunne immense in his centre-back station, were able to tack on two more before the short whistle via veteran Colin Reilly and Andrew Dunne for the 1-7 to 0-3 lead at the break.

Reilly smashed over a long-range free to extend the advantage to eight and it got worse for Jason O'Reilly's charges from there as they lost Teevan to a straight red card five minutes into the restart.

Two Henry frees kept Belturbet in with an outside chance but their neighbours were still very much in command with county man Dunne driving through for an inspirational score.

McEntee cancelled another free from Henry as the game entered its final 10 minutes, but it was over as a contest once Rory Dunne threaded Fay through the maroon men's centre and rolled the ball low beyond Anscombe.

Ten points to the good, Redhills were never going to lose their lead in the remaining minutes as scores from Mooney (2) and subs Tom McCormack and Pauric Rudden erased that of Mark Lawlor and Henry (3 frees) for a memorable double-margin victory over their neighbours.

Redhills: Paul Martin; Colin Carragher, Conor McMahon, Owen McDonald; Dessie Gumley, Rory Dunne (0-1), Martin Brady; Derek Fay (1-0), Turloc Mooney (0-3, 1f); Luke McEntee (1-1), Colin Reilly (0-2, 1f), Andrew Dunne (0-2); Packie Leddy (0-2), Cormac Brides (0-1), Killian McSherry. Subs: Greg Duffy for M Brady (22mins), Tom McCormack (0-1) for G Duffy (50), Pauric Rudden (0-1) for L McEntee (60).

Belturbet: Danny Anscombe; Shane Fitzpatrick, Mark Lawlor (0-1), Peter Shannon; John Cahill, Damien O'Reilly, Conal McGinley; Cian Vaughan, Eoin McGuigan; Enda Henry (0-8, 8f), Donal McDonald (0-1), Stuart Dunne; Kevin McConnell, Mark Teevan, Brendan Fitzpatrick. Subs: Niall O'Reilly for C McGinley (54mins), Jason O'Reilly for C Vaughan (56), Brian Wallace for D O'Reilly (57), Luke Smith for J Cahill (60), Sean Og Lawlor (60) for D McDonald (60).

Ref: James Clarke (Killinkere)

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