The Seniors last scheduled league fixture ended with a narrow defeat in an entertaining game at Hannahstown. The home side were off to a flier with an early goal and point, the goal coming from a quick free as St Brigids had yet to settle in to concentrating on the task at hand. When the visitors did attack however they always looked like scoring with the full forward line of minors, Mark Sweeney and Ruari Taylor causing havoc and Paddy McDonald winning every ball that came his way. One such attack resulted in Conor Taylor toe poking home a goal. This was preceded by a Paul McCrudden point and followed immediately by a great effort from McDonald.
Another lapse in concentration however resulted in a soft goal at the other end. This was cancelled out by a major strike from McDonald. The visitors finished the half strongly, with points from Sweeney and Conor Mullan, and led by the minimum margin at the short whistle.
Half Time: Lamh Dearg 2 – 3
St Brigids 2 – 4
Playing with the elements, the first twenty minutes of the second half belonged to the “Red Hands” and a series of points from play and frees helped them to a seven point lead. This was despite a real tightening up from the full back line of Paul Finnegan, Richard Smyth and Joe McKeever. Individually the halfbacks, Paul O’Hara, Deaghlan O’Hagan and James Loughrey also performed satisfactorily but, as a unit along with midfield, not enough possession was being won.
In the last quarter the visitors finally clicked into gear. Sweeney did well at centre half forward with Frankie Devlin going deep to win possession and launch attacks. Loughrey, now operating at midfield, began to enjoy himself and a typical surging run finished with a shot to goal.
With five minutes to go St Brigids introduced their one and only substitute available in the form of team manager, Conor MacSherry. During those five minutes he managed to pass the ball to himself, bring the full back far enough out the field to score a point (thank God we lost by two!) and almost get in the way of a goal. Despite a late goal from McDonald the home side held on for a merited win. In truth the margin would have been much greater but for a man of the match performance from goalkeeper John Mackle who rolled back the years with four fantastic second half saves.
The large St Brigids crowd left the field, like Tyrone supporters exiting Croke Park, debating whether the impact substitution should have been made earlier. Unlike the thousands of Tyrone fans feelings on Canavan, the seven St Brigids followers were unanimous in agreement that MacSherry should not have come on at all!
Team:
John Mackle, Paul Finnegan, Richard Smyth, Joe McKeever, Paul O’Hara,
Deaghlan O’Hagan, James Loughrey, Paul McCrudden, Conor Mullan, Conor Taylor, Frankie Devlin, Aidan Owens, Ruari Taylor, Paddy McDonald, Mark Sweeney.
Substitute:
Conor MacSherry
(Author’s note: its taken three years of writing reports to be able to have the names Canavan and MacSherry in the same sentence… it’ll not happen again.)
