Apart from the weather the only thing glorious in this Division 3 clash away to Aldergrove on Sunday 23rd April ’06 was the fielding of Chris McCann. His performance lit up an otherwise dour and at times nasty battle.
It was 10 minutes into the game before the visitors had an attack of significance resulting in a Joe Brolly pointed free. By this stage the home side had registered three points of their own. From then to the break however, inspired by McCann, it was all St Brigids. What he didn’t field he broke for Conor Mullan to collect. With the defence having tightened up the result was a series of flowing attacks yielding a return of 1-2 each for Brolley and Ruari O’Neill.
Half Time: Aldergrove 0 – 4
St Brigids 2 – 4
St Brigids didn’t really capitalise on their advantage and their failure to put the home side away led to a tense last quarter with two goals for the home side cutting the lead to just two points at one stage. Indeed, had it not been for a superb catch under pressure on his goal line from Paul McCrudden, the lead would have disappeared completely.
Meanwhile at the other end Brolly showed his wealth of experience notching up six points, three each from play and points. The frees invariably came from fouls on McCann who continued to torture the home defence. Aldergrove’s discipline finally cracked and a series of yellow cards was accompanied by a red. Niall McDonald got in on the scoring act shortly before the final whistle to hep ensure another two league points.
Full Time: Aldergove 2 – 7
St Brigids 2 – 11
While not the prettiest of performances, this was nonetheless a job well done. A few performances were well below par and it was left to Brolly, assisted by O’Neill in the first half, to do all the scoring. Had it not been for the performance of McCann however, the outcome would surely have been different.
Team:
Paul McCrudden, Seamus McArdle, Richard Smyth, Aidan Owens, Deaghlan O’Hagan, Gregory McGonigle, Frankie Devlin, Conor Mullan, James Loughrey, Niall McDonald, Chris McCann, Duncan MacAuley, Ruari O’Neill, Joe Brolley, Benny Reilly.
Substitutes Used:
Joe McKeever, Mark Sweeney, Paddy McDonald, Keelan McCrudden
