Slaughtneil turn the screw to make it 10 on the trot

The Derry kingpins pulled away from Kevin Lynch's in the second half of their county decider. 

PURPLE REIGN: Slaughtneil's Shane McGuigan faces up to Kevin Lynch's Eoghan Cassidy. 

Slaughtneil 2-18 

Kevin Lynch's 1-8 

THAT most title-hungry of clubs, Slaughtneil, went ten in a row in the Derry senior hurling Championship with a second-half blitzing of Kevin Lynch’s, outscoring them 2-13 to 1-2 after the break.

Going in at half-time, despite having lost their best man-marking defender Paddy Kelly to injury after seven minutes, Lynch’s aggression was working as they were a point up through magnificent scores from Conor Kelly and a defined gameplan aimed at clogging up the Slaughtneil attack.

Deprived of space, Slaughtneil were forced to shoot from outside the range, and it told with 13 wides in the opening half.

But they always had Brendan Rogers in reserve and when he was introduced at half time he caused total panic in the Lynch’s backline that allowed others – most notably football All-Star nominee Shane McGuigan – to flourish.

McGuigan opened the scoring on 16 seconds of the first half and they were already three points clear when a mix up in the Lynch’s rearguard allowed Jerome McGuigan to pull on it along the ground to find the net.

Thereafter it became a procession. Lynch’s fire was extinguished and with the athletic Thomas Brady badly hampered with a hamstring injury, they couldn’t keep up with the pace.

Captain Cormac O’Doherty began a wonderful move that went the full length of the pitch and Peter McCullagh played in fellow sub Rogers to get behind the cover and rattle the net past goalkeeper Liam Óg Hinphey on the hour.

Odhran McKeever, son of former Derry corner-back Kieran, grabbed a late consolation goal back for Lynch’s.

But the odds of 1/100 offered in favour of Slaughtneil by one of the best-known bookmakers in the country beforehand, looked justified.

Scorers for Slaughtneil: C O’Doherty (0-6, 5 frees, 1x ‘65’), Shane McGuigan (0-4), J McGuigan (1-1), B Rogers (1-1), S Cassidy, P McCullagh (0-2 each), R Ó Mianáin, K McKaigue (0-1 each) 

Scorers for Kevin Lynch’s: O McKeever (1-1), R Mullan (0-3f), C Kelly (0-2), N Ferris, R Mullan (0-1 each) 

SLAUGHTNEIL: O O’Doherty; P McNeill, C McAllister, K McKaigue; R O’Mianáin, C McKaigue, M McGrath; C O’Doherty, Shane McGuigan; M McGuigan, G Bradley, B Cassidy; J McGuigan, Sé McGuigan, S Cassidy 

Subs: B Rogers for M McGuigan, P McCullagh for Sé McGuigan (both HT), J Cassidy for G Bradley (49m), E Cassidy for B Cassidy (59m) 

DUNGIVEN: L Óg Hinphey; P Kelly, M Craig, N McNicholl; N Ferris, R Mullan, T McHugh; T Brady, D Mullan; E Cassidy, J Mullan, S Kelly; O McKeever, C Kelly, D McGilligan 

Subs: R Mullan for P Kelly (8m), C O’Reilly for D McGilligan (40m), C McKelvey for T McHugh (45m), P McNicholl for D Mullan (48m), T McHugh for T Brady (52m), T Brady for T McHugh (56m) 

Referee: Tarlach Conway (Ballinascreen)