St Brigid’s U12 footballers enjoyed a superb day of football in Croke Park on Tuesday 6th April as part of an Antrim U12 activity day. The event entailed 12 teams in total from across the county with the format being for each club to play 2 matches on the hallowed turf (watched enviously by their parents – and coaches!).
St Brigid’s first match was against Aldergrove. This was a very tough opener. Aldergrove thwarted St Brigid’s early attacks, putting in some excellent tackles. However, Peter Lavery settled St Brigid’s nerves with a finely taken goal. This was then quickly followed by two further goals of the highest quality. Both were well worked team moves. The first was orchestrated by Patrick Finnegan, who at right half back broke up a dangerous Aldergrove move and with great vision picked out James Smith with a searching pass. James had still some work to do but with a neat side step he broke through the Aldergrove defence and finished with a sweet shot to the bottom corner of the net.
The second goal was a similar team move – again built up from defence – with Peter Lavery again showing deadly precision in front of goal. St Brigid’s were now in their stride and the defence was well on top. Luke O’Sullivan caught a great high ball to clear St Brigid’s lines, whilst Frank McCormack won key possession – reading the game brilliantly and getting ahead of his man. However, not to be outdone, Joseph Finnegan, playing at half back, had also an exceptional game where he tirelessly contested every breaking ball and cleared well whilst often under severe pressure. To complete the scoring for St Brigid’s, Enda Kelly McCann knocked over a fine point from open play following good work by Ciaran Diamond.
In the second game, St Brigid’s played All Saints, Ballymena. This time St Brigid’s got off to a flyer. James Smith got the scoring under way and this was followed by perhaps the score of the match/blitz. Daire McGarvey won a loose ball on the wing and played a defence splitting ball into Peter Lavery, who showed great composure in drilling his shot into the corner of the net. Peter Lavery then added a further point. It was looking good for St Brigid’s, but on-going changes started to upset their balance and All Saints came right back into the match with 2 quick fire goals. Tiernan Cahill and Odhran Boyle were now working overtime in defence and did exceptionally well under this pressure.
However, switching Enda Kelly McCann to midfiled helped stiffle the All Saints tide. This change also eased the pressure on Peter Webb, who then found space to break forward and slot over a great point from distance. This lifted St Brigid’s. In a similar vein Frank McCormack also showed great spirit, breaking through what appeared to be a dozen tackles before laying a superb pass to Stephen Quinn. Stephen then calmly pointed over from the edge of the box, sending the ball high into Hill 16. This was a fine end to a great day of football and hopefully, the first of many outings to Croke Park for St Brigids.
