Last gasp Castlewellan goal breaks St John’s
under-16 hearts
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Castlewellan 1-12 v 2-06
St John’s
Sun 10th Sep
Aidan O’Neill was the hero for Castlewellan under-16s as his
last gasp goal delivered both points to
Castlewellan and broke
St John’s hearts in the All County
League clash on Sunday morning.
St John’s
dominated the first half, led for most
of the game only to see a well taken
Castlewellan free restore parity in the
dying stages of the game. It seemed
harsh on the Johnnies that they would
have to share the spoils again, as they
had done in the previous encounter
between the two, but worse was to come
as Aidan O’Neill fired home in the
second minute of added time to ensure
that the points remained in the town.
Castlewellan were first on the scoreboard but when Martin
Keenan received a long pass from David
Milling and fired into the net over the
advancing goalkeeper the Johnnies had
established a lead that they would hold
for the majority of the game.
Castlewellan pointed a free to close the
gap but that was immediately cancelled
out by Gerard McAnulty’s first point. He
almost added a second score soon
afterwards but his free hit the crossbar
and the rebounded was cleared by the
relieved Castlewellan defence.
Castlewellan got the next two points but
the
St John’s
defence were generally able for whatever
Castlewellan could throw at them, with
John McMullan, Cormac McMullan and Conor
Braniff the pick of them. Ryan Gibney
pointed for St John’s and Gerard
McAnulty extended the advantage after
receiving a quickly taken free when Ryan
Gordon had been dragged down. The same
player extended the visitor’s advantage
to 2-3 to 0-4 before the interval.
The second period began brightly for the visitors as Gerard
McAnulty extended their lead to six.
Castlewellan continued to press forward
and got the next three scores, all
points, as they brought on some
substitutes and shuffled their pack.
Ryan Gibney struck a magnificent point
from at least 45m to keep the scoreboard
ticking over but Castlewellan had added
another two points, one from a free,
before the half-way mark in the second
period.
Castlewellan pointed again to reduce the margin to the
minimum - ever so slowly the screw was
being tightened. With both defences on
top scores were now hard to come by, but
the next went to the home side to
restore parity. That didn’t last long as
Gerard McAnulty sent over a fine free –
but that was to be
St John’s
last score. Indeed there was only to be
one further score in the last ten
minutes as both sides traded wides. That
score came from a well taken free to
restore parity once again. It looked
like the sides would be sharing the
spoils again. But then in the second
minute of added time the ball fell to
Aidan O’Neill.
St John’s: Joe Lennon; Cormac McMullan, John McMullan, Declan
Gilmore; Ryan Gordon, Conor Braniff,
Darren Savage; David Milling, Gerard
McAnulty (1-4, 1f); Daniel McKay, Stevie
Trainor, Shane Rice; Chris McKay, Ryan
Gibney (0-2), Martin Keenan (1-0). Sub
Hugh Flanagan for Chris McKay.
