St John’s U-14s set the pace
St John’s
11-11 v 5-11 Kilclief
Thu 23rd June
St John’s produced another excellent
all-round performance to maintain their
winning sequence and their position at
the business end of the league table.
This game was played in an excellent spirit, as was testified
by the fact that only two of the
thirty-eight scores came from frees. It
was a delight for many to see a match
played in such a good spirit after all
the wrestling and red cards of the
inter-county games of the previous
weekend!
Kilclief opened the scoring with a goal from Stephen Rowdan,
who was thorn in St John’s side all
game, and followed this up with a point
by Ciaran Curran on five minutes. Good
work by Martin Keenan set up Ruairi
McGlynn whose shot was well saved by the
keeper. However, he was unable to stop
Ruairi McGlynn getting the rebound and
crossing from Conor Morgan to rifle a
low shot into the net.
This was the first of five unanswered scores for the home
side as Chris McKay (twice) and Martin
Keenan pointed before Damien Mackin
found the net again. It was then
Kilclief’s turn to apply some pressure
but they were restricted to a point by
good defending from the full back line
of Ryan O’Reilly, Daniel McKay and Ryan
Gordon. Declan Gilmore had another
excellent game at centre-half back too,
well assisted by Harry McMullan and
Darren Savage. Then Damien Mackin and
Conor Morgan, with an assist by the
industrious Martin Keenan, pointed to
extend the home side’s lead. Joe Lennon
then showed his worth in the
St John’s
net to prove that a goal stopped is as
valuable as one scored, with an
excellent save down to his right. One of
the Kilclief half-backs pointed to
reduce the margin slightly but they were
undone when Shane Rice’s shot from
distance caught the keeper off guard and
found its way into the net. The keeper
did redeem himself with a save from
Martin Keenan soon after.
Kilclief got a couple of points back from the boot of Stephen
Rowdan and hit both the crossbar with a
dropping shot and the point post but
could not make any real impression on St
John’s lead as Damien Mackin, after good
work from Hugh Flanagan, and Conor
Morgan pointed for the home side to
leave the scores at 5-04 to 2-05 at the
interval.
A few weeks ago this
St John’s team overturned a ten point
deficit against Loughinisland so went
out for the second period determined to
advance rather than sit on their eight
point cushion. They were quickly
rewarded for their positive approach
when Damien Mackin netted on the first
attack. This was followed by a period of
sustained pressure but the Kilclief
rearguard held firm until David Milling
fired into the net from an angle on the
left. This was followed by a series of
points from Damien Mackin, Ruairi
McGlynn and Martin Keenan and a goal
from Darren Savage as some of the
Kilclief heads began to drop.
There was still enough resistance left in the Kilclief team
for them to push forward too and they
got a couple of points in reply as well
as shooting a couple of wides. Joe
Lennon also saved what looked like a
certain goal.
Halfway through the second period Chris McKay pointed a free
– the first score to come from a placed
ball in the game. Ruairi McGlynn netted
before Kilclief got another couple of
points. Midfielder Ciaran Curran then
netted with a powerful shot to the top
corner but that was cancelled out by
Martin Keenan’s score after a neat
interchange with Chris McKay.
The tempo of the game fell in the last five minutes as
Kilclief heads began to drop and
St John’s started to be over-elaborate.
Kilclief benefit more from this as they
added two goals and two points to the
home side’s two points in the closing
stages, but it was too late to make any
difference.
St John’s: Joe Lennon; Ryan O’Reilly, Daniel McKay, Ryan
Gordon; Darren Savage (1-0), Declan
Gilmore, Harry McMullan; David Milling
(1-0), Shane Rice (1-0); Conor Morgan
(2-3, 1f), Damien Mackin (3-2), Hugh
Flanagan; Ruairi McGlynn (1-1), Chris
McKay (1-3, 1f), Martin Keenan (1-2).
Subs Kevin Keenan for Harry McMullan,
Neil Magorrian, Philip Brennan.
