St Brigid’s hosted a St Gall’s under 21 side packed full of county footballers, minor, under 21 and senior, on Friday night last at Deramore. An early Chris Donnelly goal set the cat among the pigeons, for the initative was seized by the much younger Malone Road boys in a first half when Ben Sinnott shackled the St. Galls threat McGourty. Despite some poor free-kick taking, two points from play and a second goal finished by Ryan Mackle saw the boys in blue lead at half time by 2:2 to 0:6 in a first half when both sides missed scoreable free kicks.
The second half started with St. Galls in the ascendancy in the midfield sector where ex Mitchell’s player Sean Burke, showing the experience he has gained on the Antrim senior panel, dominated the early exchanges. However the last quarter belonged to St Brigid’s when some great interplay between Ryan Brolly and Cormac McGrady saw the gap narrow to three at the final whistle.
Considering the strength of the opposition and the fact that 10 of the players who played were minors, this was one of the best performances ever from an under strength St Brigid’s side who could have done with the power of Niall MacDonald and the skill of Ruairi Taylor to augment the wholehearted performance. Lessons for the future for Manager Conway would be to get more practice time from free kick takers and the opportunity to play at least one challenge match before the competition starts.
Impressive displays came from joint Men of the Match Chris Donnelly and Ben Sinott. They got the backup of a solid team performance from all seventeen players who entered the fray.
Team: T Convery, Matt Kelly, B Sinnott, Ciaran Mackle, D McKeever, Mark Kelly (Capt) A Owens, Mark Sweeney, Michael Malone, Ryan Mackle C McGrady, C Mooney, M MacSherry, R Brolly, C Donnelly
Subs : P Nolan, R Ward and Connor Mackle
