March 6th saw the last of the challenge games with an enjoyable visit to Ballymena. In order to facilitate all 33 players who showed up, the game was played over 4 20-minute periods. The first period, played by a supposedly stronger 15, left St Brigids trailing 0 – 3 to 0 –1, with a 19th minute point from Conor McKendry being the sole return. The visitors did play some good football, especially through Deaghlan O’Hagan, Richard Smyth and Aidan Owens but could not find their range in front of goal.
Fielding a complete new 15 for the second period was always going to be a tough challenge and All Saints managed to stretch their lead to 0 – 9 to 0 – 1. The highlights for St Brigids were the displays of the half back line, Chris Tanney, Bobby Smyth and Jimmy King. The low light was the bias refereeing of our own Eunan Conway … leading to the removal of Keelan McCrudden from the pitch!
Half time: All Saints 0 – 9 St Brigids 0 – 1
The third section ended all square at 0 – 2 each with McKendry and Paul McCrudden registering the scores.
St Brigids finally won a period and looked the sharper team with Frankie Devlin registering 1 – 2 and Duncan MacAuley adding 1 – 1. Unfortunately, John Mackle was finally beaten, before being substituted.
Full time: All Saints 2 – 13 St Brigids 2 – 6
All said this was a useful and necessary workout as the teams prepare for the league games this Sunday. “Senior 3” go to Gort na Mona while “Senior 4” travel to Hightown to take on St Endas. Both games throw in at 2pm.
