Saul Notes - April 24th 2006

Saul GAC Club Notes for week of Apr 24th 2006

JC Meats join Saul Business sponsor team.

Pictured are owner John Crumley & team being welcomed on board by club chairman Peter Craig.

JC Meats add beef to the Saul Business Sponsor team
- The growing Saul Business sponsorship community extended further last week with JC Meats of St Patricks Avenue, Downpatrick and Ballynahinch signing up to the team. Club Chairman Peter Craig thanked owner John Crumley and his team for coming on board. Sponsorship banners for JC Meats and all our Business sponsors will be in place at St Patricks Park in the next few weeks. For further details of our Business Sponsors and progress in the Gold Club and Club Saul supporter packages, check out the club website at www.saul-gac.com

Minors Roundup
- Following an encouraging draw with league leaders Bright in Killough the previous week in a game that Saul should have won if any of the missed scoring chances were taken, Saul minors were brought straight back down to earth again when St Pauls visited Saul and went back to Holywood with the league points following a 1 point victory. As in previous home games, Saul were slow to start and effectively the damage was done in the first half when the visitors were able to plunder 2 goals in the first period as a result of hesitant and at times absent defending. While Saul tightened in the second half, and came back to take the lead, basic errors allowed St Pauls to level and then steal the points with a converted free in the dying minutes.
  
  In the East Down sevens on Sunday past, Saul lost out to Drumaness in the quarter finals where in the end poor shot selection in attack when goals were on led to their downfall. Best performers were Callum Laverty, Conor Shields, Chris Mullan and Brian Gaffney.
  
  The team have a chance to get back on track tonight (Wednesday) with the trip to Kilclief in the league for a 7pm throw-in. All players are asked to be at Saul for 6pm.

Underage round-up
- The U16's (now in section B of the league) fell to rivals Bright in their opening league game. As the minors discovered earlier in the year in Killough, shipping goals to a team who have the players to take their chances makes it very difficult to recover. The team however does show promise if the defensive errors and focus can be improved. Manager Conor O'Neill and his team will be working on that before the next match.
- The U14's had a bye last week in the first round of the league but get their season up and going on Thursday night away to Drumaness. With the throw-in at 7pm, players are asked to meet at Saul for 6 o'clock.
- The U12 and U14 girls teams continue training on Sundays (12.30) and Thursdays (6pm) at Saul. The U14's start their league campaign on Sunday next in Annacloy with a 12.30pm throw-in against Teconnaught. The U12 girls start their league at home to Loughinisland the week after next.
- Membership for all underage players is now overdue. All team managers will be looking for membership fees this week at training.

Seniors and Reserves
- The seniors started their Division 2 campaign on a disappointing note with defeat in Atticall on Easter Sunday and with the postponement of their local derby match with Kilclief last Friday night have had some time to work in training on preparation for the Ballyholland game which took place on Monday night (report on the website and here next week). Injuries in pre-season have hampered the early pre-season optimism with Lee Magee, Philip Traynor and Michael Vint all on the sidelines but the rest of the squad have been working hard to put things right under the management of Eddie Harney and Mark McGrath. The 1sts take on Warrenpoint in Saul next Monday night for their first home game of the year. The rearranged date for the Kilclief game isn't known at the time of writing but could possibly be arranged for Thursday night in Saul. Keep an eye on
  www.saul-gac.com for updates.
- The reserves under the guidance of Marty Molloy and Frank Holland tasted defeat in their opening EDRFL game in a tough assignment at home to Liatroim on Sunday evening. Despite a couple of decent passing phases from the home team in the opening minutes, Saul lacked the clinical finishing that would eventually cost them this game. Saul's situation was certainly not helped when, after 10 minutes of play, they were behind 1-1 to no score, and had both midfielders (Gareth Casement and Nathan Keenan) replaced due to injury. Saul didn't open their tally until the 16th minute, through a Darren Burns point. By that stage Liatroim had registered 1-4. At half-time the visitors led 1-7 to 0-1. After the restart, Liatroim added 3 more points, and in the 41st minute they added a further goal. Saul responded with three unanswered points (two from Frank Holland and a further close in free). Further visiting scores followed and Jason Deegans added a last minute Saul point for the hosts to leave the final score 0-5 to 3-10. Saul came up against a strong Liatroim side and the hosts learned a lot about themselves. Hopefully a better display will be on show away to St Pauls next Sunday.

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