Bangor bow out of the All Ireland League

Despite the many good wishes from fellow Ulster clubs and the pre-match carnival atmosphere at Upritchard Park, Bangor were unable to produce a winning performance for the occasion. In contrast, and having been narrowly defeated by Ballyclare in the round robin games, Monkstown were determined to make the most of their last chance of gaining promotion to Division 2C of the All Ireland League.

Playing conditions couldn’t be better, with sunshine overhead and only a slight breeze offering no real advantage to either team. Bangor fielded a familiar side with only Matt Bougoure missing through unavailability, and hopes were high that they could continue their run of strong results that they picked up over the closing stages of the league calendar.

Bangor kicked off and were quickly on the attack, but despite getting within a few metres of the Monkstown line, they were unable to get any points on the board. The only consolation was that Monkstown were finding scoring opportunities scarce. In fact it took 30 minutes for Monkstown’s first real chance when they won a penalty on Bangor’s 10 metre line, but the kick for goal was wide of the posts. However, within a minute, Bangor had offended again and Monkstown had a second chance to score, but again they failed to convert the kick. As they continued to press forward, Bangor suffered the loss of Craig Gilroy to a yellow card for an off the ball tackle. Monkstown kicked for touch and, from the resulting lineout, drove their maul forward and over Bangor’s line for the first try of the game, after 37 minutes of play.

With the first half drawing to a close, Bangor were guilty of a loss of concentration as Monkstown kept up the pressure and simply ran through some poor tackling to score another try, unconverted this time, as the referee blew for half time.

With Bangor now 0-12 behind, it was vital they settle from the restart and start clawing back the deficit. However, it was Monkstown who seized early control and within the opening 2 minutes of the second half, had added another try which, when converted, stretched their lead to 0-19, giving Bangor an even bigger mountain to climb.

This score seemed to jolt Bangor into action, with Monkstown having to dig in to defend their lead. As Bangor pushed forward, desperate defending soon resulted in a yellow card for Monkstown after a dangerous tackle. A couple of minutes later, and taking advantage of the visitors’ stretched backline, Ally McIvor broke through for Bangor’s opening try beside the posts. Rhys Larmour added the conversion to bring the score to 7-19. When a promising attack shortly afterwards from Paddy Dobie was stopped with a deliberate knock-on, Monkstown picked up a second yellow card. Now with a 2 man advantage, Bangor moved the ball wide to Conor Lusty who dived over in the right hand corner for a well-taken try. Larmour was on form again, converting the touchline kick to narrow the scores to 14-19, with 15 minutes left to play.

With Bangor now dominant, Monkstown’s desperate defending earned them a third yellow card for more dangerous tackling. It was almost an inevitability that Bangor would score again, and this looked to be the case after 30 minutes when Craig Gilroy went on a looping run around the Monkstown defence before sprinting for the corner. The try looked certain, but as he turned to bring the ball in from the touchline, the flaying arm of the last Monkstown defender knocked the ball out of Gilroy’s grasp causing it to be knocked on.

As players returned from the sin bin, Bangor’s advantage soon slipped away and Monkstown set about closing out the final few minutes without further loss. It was now Bangor who were taking chances and, when they conceded a penalty in the final minute of play, Monkstown simply tapped the ball to themselves and kicked it to touch, bringing the game to an end and starting their promotion celebrations.

Although it’s a tough way for Bangor to exit the All Ireland League it’s been part of for the past 8 years, they now return to the Ulster Championship and can look forward to facing many familiar Ulster sides in what has always been a highly competitive league, with the added bonus of participating in the Junior and Towns Cup competitions. With many exciting player prospects coming through the youth teams, and even more young talent being developed at primary level, the outlook remains positive at Upritchard Park.