After defeating Cargin St. Brigid’s put in a flat performance
St Brigid’s hosted St Gall’s on Sunday June 1 at a well turned out Deramore Park venue in the all county league division one. Both teams were short a few regulars, and the late withdrawals of McKeever and Cunningham seemed to affect St Brigid’s more as a team that was so well balanced last week looked unbalanced but more importantly lacked the hunger and conviction that was so evident last week.
St Brigid’s started into a stiff breeze and were finding it initially hard to win possession in the first half with McClean and Kerr dominant for the visitors. However the first quarter saw three frees converted for the visitors and the hosts could only muster a Dara Edwards free after a strong run from O’Neill. St. Brigid’s failed to win even a quarter of breaking ball around the middle and were compounding this by being over-elaborate out of defence and this was penalised by an interception from Kieran McGourty who won an easy turnover and a goal resulted. Another similar offence was punished by the county champions. An excellent score from play by the hard working Loughrey after some neat interplay and a score from O’Neill were the only bright points from a poor first half by the Biddies.
The half time score of 1:5 to 0:3 was a fair reflection on the game.
The throw in was won by St Gall’s and they quickly converted. St Brigid’s were playing second fiddle despite the advantage of the breeze and two goal chances were spurned by O’Neill. Five second half subs were introduced and with Paul Finnegan in defence and the lively Chris Donnelly and the presence of Paddy McDonald on the square there was an improvement in the host’s play and eventually O’Neill converted from close range. MacSherry did convert a fine 45 to improve the look on the final scoreboard near the end. On a day when St. Brigid’s had their poorest display of the season, the visitors were never really threatened and the Malone Road boys will have to prepare diligently for their next league match in two weeks’ time away to Gort Na Mona.
Final Score St. Brigids 1:4 St. Galls 1:11
Best for the hosts were James Loughrey, Deaglan O’Hagan, with a good first half from O’Neill and a brief spell from Sub Donnelly. Sean Kelly for the visitors was a real driving force for the winners.
Team: J Mackle, B Reilly, A Christie, M Donnelly. B McMahon , D O’ Hagan R Smyth and D Edwards, M Sweeney, A Cole, D McAuley, R Brolly, M Malone, R O’Neill
Subs used: P Finnegan, P MacDonald,C Donnelly,M MacSherry and C McGrady
