St Brigid’s were rocked by the severe injury to their star player Comac McGrady. Playing at full forward, Cormac was going for goal when the injury occurred. A broken leg and probably 12 weeks in plaster was the result. The squad will miss him badly. We wish Cormac a speedy recovery.
St Enda’s won out in a very low scoring match. St Brigid’s had the bulk of possession and St Endas relied on the quick counter attack. A combination of tight defending and a man of the match performance by the visitors goalie denied St Brigid’s time and time again.
A Penalty miss, Cormac’s serious knee injury and a hand injury to Michael Malone let St Brigid’s know it was not to be their night. The lads give 100% effort. Playing some very fast stylish football the final ball was always somehow cleared by St Enda’s with their goalkeeper pulling off several excellent saves. In the first half St Brigid’s found themselves 2 goals behind. A Michael Malone point sandwiched in between 2 well taken points by Stevie McAleer brought St Brigid’s back into contention. However a missed penalty for St Brigid’s was quickly followed by a sucker punch goal leaving the home team trailing by 7 points going into the second half.
Chris Donnelly drove the attacks forward Timothy McCrudden started to dominate midfield and cancel out St Enda’s star player. A well worked move saw David Brennan give a clever lay off which left an open goal for Stevie McAleer to crash the ball into the back of the net.
Now there were only 4 points in it. St Brigid’s had 80% possession in the second half. A point by St Enda’s in one of their rare attacks was quickly followed by a well taken penalty by Chris Donnelly. The ref blew early leaving the home team no chance to get that elusive score.
A match which was played in good spirit by two very skillful sides. The home side simply failed to translate possession into scores. A recent win by St Brigid’s over the visitors in a challenge match may have left the home side lacking that bit of hunger that was needed to acheive a result. Nevertheless it is early days in the league yet and with the quality of play shown by St Brigid’s to date they will still be in contention.
Team: D Quigg, R Kervick, M Edgar, P Nolan, B Sinnott, T McKeogh, L McGread, T McCrudden, C Mooney, M Malone, C Donnelly, S O’Brien, R Mackle, D Connolly, S McAleer
Subs made: C McGrady (20mins), R Ward (35mins), D McKeever (40mins), M Kelly (45mins), C Fitzpatrick (45mins)
Subs not used: C Keenan, N Murray, C Owens, T O’Neill, C Mackle, C McLoughlin, A McLarnan
Scorers: S McAleer 1-2, C Donnelly 1-0, M Malone 0-1
Man of the Match: T McKeogh
