By Shaun Casey

A GOAL inside the opening two minutes of Sunday’s Ulster Junior Hurling Championship final sent Ballinascreen on their way as they convincingly defeated East Cavan Gaels and the man responsible for the major couldn’t have been happier.

Accurate wing-forward Eamon Conway drove the ball low and hard into the bottom corner from a free, a shot that the entire crowd in Dungannon expected him to slot over the bar. Those are the magic moments that help crown champions.

That strike helped Conway top score for Cathal McDaid’s side with a brilliant personal tally of 1-7 as the Derry men captured their first-ever Ulster crown in comfortable fashion with a 1-25 to 3-9 success against the Breffni outfit.

“I don’t know, I think maybe I was just getting used to the hurling more than anything there,” laughed Conway when reflecting on that early goal.

“I don’t know if that was too intentional to be honest with you but, here, it came off and it gave us a great start.

“We really attacked that first 15 minutes and we probably took the foot off the pedal a wee bit. That’s something we definitely need to work on.

“But once those three goals were in, we went back and we focused on our defence and really finished out the game strongly.”

Conway was the standout player on the field and was central to an attacking line that looked unstoppable at times.

Across the 60-plus minutes of championship action, all six starting forwards got on the scoresheet. But Conway was quick to give credit to their defence as well.

“It’s easy whenever our defence is so on top and they’re so strong. The likes of our full-back line have been immense all year. The work they do, we get to take our scores because of the hard work they do.”

Reflecting on Ballinascreen’s achievement, Conway hopes that the victory and the ability to bring an Ulster title back to the club will provide a real impetus.

“It’s brilliant now, this is the first time Ballinascreen has ever gone and won an Ulster Championship at senior, so it’ll definitely give the club a good lift but in terms of hurling it’s something that I think we can definitely build on from here.”

Ballinascreen’s victory completed a Derry hat-trick last weekend, with Sleacht Néill and Swatragh both picking up semi-final victories in the Senior and Intermediate Championships against Cuhsendall and Bredagh respectively.

“I think it definitely shows the competitiveness of some of the teams in Derry,” Conway added.

“The likes of Swatragh there, I think they can definitely be pushing on and they’ll give anyone a game in that Intermediate.

“As we saw last Saturday night, Sleacht Néill were brilliant, they really showed what Derry hurling is all about, that physicality, and we also had the hurling to back it up then too.”