City of Armagh 3rds 22​​Clogher Valley 2nds 19

Friday 29th November 2019
Report by Trevor Knipe

It was business as usual for City of Armagh Thirds as they took on Clogher Valley Seconds at the Palace Grounds on a chilly Friday night. From the off, Armagh looked like a renewed side after last week’s poor showing in Bangor. With the Fourths also playing at the same time and some players out through injury, captain Andy Brady was forced to make some late player changes with Tom Johnston’s brother Jack on the bench and Paddy Chapman starting at prop.
The sides were evenly matched but an early penalty for Armagh was successfully taken by Andrew Knipe for a 3-0 lead. The Clogher Valley pack were strong and aggressive but conceded several penalties for smothering the ball and not releasing. It was from one of these penalties, quickly taken by Trevor Girvan, that Armagh got their first try when Tom Johnston powered his way to the line. The conversion by Knipe took the score to 10-0 within ten minutes.
Clogher Valley posed a real threat each time they got close to the Armagh try line. Armagh defended resolutely, but sometimes illegally until referee Paul Baxter finally penalised them with a penalty try to narrow the gap to 3 points. Clogher Valley closed out the first half with a second push over try and conversion to take a 4 point lead into the second half.

The restart saw Clogher kick the ball straight into the arms of Adam Edgar who made some yards before passing out to Adam Magowan on the wing. He evaded the Valley defence to score in the corner. The conversion was missed but Armagh had regained a slender lead. A second try from Magowan, this time converted, gave Armagh an eight point lead and meant Clogher Valley had to score twice in the last ten minutes to win the match. They did manage one try from a pushover scrum but it was not enough and the match finished 22-19 in Armagh’s favour.

This was a very close and entertaining game which was played in good spirit and watched by a good crowd of Armagh and Clogher Valley spectators. The result means that Armagh return to second place in Provincial League 2.
With no match next week the next big challenge comes on Saturday 14th December when the side travel to take on Ballymoney Seconds in the second round of the Crawford Cup.

City of Armagh: A Edgar, T Henry, P Chapman, W Martin, J Gilpin, R Morris, R Shilliday,
T Johnston, T Girvan, A Knipe, A Magowan, D Reynolds, A Brady, R Finlay, A Winder,
J Johnston.
Scorers: Tom Johnston (try), Adam Magowan (2 tries), Andrew Knipe (2 conv, pen).