Minors Win V St John's

In a tense game against a very strong St John’s team the St Pat’s/St Brigids Gaels came through by the skin of their teeth. Close games in recent weeks have seen a building crowd come to see the ever improving team – they have been rewarded with plenty of excitement even if the heart medication has had to be doubled. The game opened with an Alex Lavery drive and Mark Boylan converting the resulting free. St John’s equalised soon after and would rue three missed early chances by the end. Boyland scored from a free he won himself with an excellent through ball from Paddy O’Boyle creating havoc. The visitors scored from frees from “hands on the back” – with the Gaels needing to learn to read the referee and tailor their play accordingly, too.      St John’s took a two point lead either side of a well worked Conor O’Doherty score set up by Niall Lundy and Mark Boylan.  An Alex Lavery drive again won a free with Boyland showing he is human after all as the ball went wide. The visitors were gifted a score from over carrying infront of goal before great team defending prevented the Geals’s goal being breached but only just. The final score came from the very impressive Hannigan, with a high catch and score.   Half Time 0.3 to 0.6 to St John’s   The second half started with a well worked team score from St John’s with three quick handpasses leaving an easy conversion. O’Doherty scored from excellent set up play from Niall Lundy soon after and Boylan converted a free from a late tackle. The black card – the first the team had seen all year – was one of the turning points in the game. Niall Lundy made a great run and shot on goal only to be denied by a fine save. The home side clawed one back after good build up play from Jack O’Kane. The second turning point was the red card for club captain Lundy  after the referee gave a free against him for overcarrying – many in the crowd thought that he had taken too many solos rather than steps but that doesn’t excuse the reaction. The impressive and very busy  Shane Boyle set up Boylan to score from play before adding a point himself after good work from Mc Govern. The home side faught very hard for the remainer of the match. In particular Conor King winning alot of dirty ball in midfield and using short effective passes to set up attacks. At the back Rory Smyth shone the brightest in a defensive unit that all emerged with credit.  The visitors scored another from a dropped shot to seemingly put the game to bed. It would be almost the gaaels last mistake. Man of the match Alex Lavery continually took the fight to St John’s with his hard work match by quality drives from one 45 to the other possibly the most significant contribution to the win.  Shane Moran continued his scoring streek to level the scores and tension mounted. The home team gave no frees away in the danger area in the last 10 minutes and played the ball into the scoring zone with every attack as they realised in this battle every point was a prisoner. This level of plat is highly encouraging and the next phase for this team to have it from the first tem minutes rather than the last. Moylan scored a 38 yard free kick winner under the fierce glare of opponents in the last minute to send the crowd ballistic.