St Brigid’s under 21’s come agonisingly close to a county final.
St Brigid’s under 21’s were narrowly defeated in the county semi-final by St Gall’s last Friday night at a wind swept Enright Park. St Galls opened the scoring playing down the hill in a very tense and low scoring first half, in which defenders Paul Finnegan, Andrew Brennan and the ever reliable Deaghlan O’Hagan excelled. With the St Gall’s attack reigned in, two frees from the accurate Mel MacSherry and
a truly brilliant fetch, carry and score from James Loughrey tied the scores at three points each. The final score of the half came from an unforced error in the St Brigid’s full back line, which gave the Milltown men a slender one point margin at the break. St Gall’s 0-4 St Brigid’s 0-3.
With only one goal chance each both sides were aware a goal was going to be a pretty decisive score to separate the teams in a low scoring game. After a left footed shot from McGourty, Naomh Brid goalkeeper Michael Malone was relieved to see the shot go wide of his left hand post. Meanwhile St Brigid’s went even closer after a quick reaction from O’Neill saw his palmed effort go just the wrong side of the post from the edge of the square.
The second half proved to be every bit as tense as the previous 110 minutes of the semi-final encounter. Scores were hard to come by in a game of a very high standard in which handling was excellent given the damp conditions. The pattern was set of St Brigid’s having the majority of possession and finding it difficult to score from play. Mel MacSherry and Niall MacDonald, when he moved to full forward, were the exceptions. St Gall’s were reduced to depending on scraps and quick incisive counter attacks for scores.
The major turning point of the game came as St Brigid’s were in the ascendancy with 15 minutes remaining. A legitimate point which sailed over the black spot from the left hand side of the field was ruled by the umpire at the “wrong post” as being wide after the wide flag was raised. The referee Paddy Quinn, who was having an otherwise fine game, inexplicable ruled the point as wide. More controversy followed as a scrambled St Brigid’s goal when the ball crossed the St Gall’s line was initially awarded by the referee only then to change his mind as once again the umpires had differing views. A thrown up ball on the edge of the 21 yard line curiously resulted.
These two incidents would cast a shadow on the game. With St Brigid’s kicking a very scorable free wide followed by two not so easy ones the tide turned St Gall’s way when in the last ten minutes they scored twice on the counter attack, giving them a very slender one point margin. St Brigid’s forward line found great difficulty scoring from play – indeed it took James Loughrey on a surging run from midfield to lead by example in this department.
The final whistle sounded on the closest of contests with the Malone Road Blues on the wrong side of a one-point defeat.
Final score: St. Brigid’s 0-9 St Gall’s 0-8.
Despite the disallowed point and the seemingly valid goal St Brigid’s will be all to aware of their inability to convert possession into scores from play as the major factor in not getting into a county final. Best for Naomh Brid in defence were the masterful Deaghlan O’Hagan, the much improved Tim McCrudden and “the rock” Paul Finnegan. A solid midfield partnership of Mallory and Loughrey provided a platform for a forward line who despite plenty of effort could only find the accurate boot of MacSherry to regularly alter the score board. Manager Conway can reflect on a lot of positives from the campaign, and a deeply committed panel will have augmented their limited Championship experience and can only help to pr
