Merited win
for St pauls in Junior Championship
St Paul's opened
their Junior Championship campaign
with a well merited win over Ballykinlar
at Drumaness. The start of the match
was delayed for 45 mins due to the
non appearance of the official referee.
However with the agreement of both
teams local referee Damian Lavery
stepped in and his performance
was highly praised by all sides
Possibly due to the
delay, the first half was poor with
missed chances on both sides.St Paul's
opened the scoring with a Kevin Murphy
point which was quickly cancelled
out when Ballykinlar's midfielder
burst through for a fine point.Eunan
Donnelly from a 20 metre free restored
St Paul's lead which was again cancelled
out by Ballykinlar's right half forward
following the award of a free directly
in front of the St Paul's posts. A
point from play from Eunan Donnelly
followed by a point from Ballykinlar's
left corner forward left the sides
level at three points each after 20
minutes. Ballykinlar began to get
on top at midfield and two points
from their No. 9 to another Eunan
Donnelly point left the half time
score St Paul's 0-4 Ballykinlar 0-5.
St Paul's second
half performance was a complete transformation,
midfielders Brian McElroy and Phil
Davey began to get more of the ball
and a steady supply to the forwards
saw scores begin to flow. First was
from Kevin McElroy with a fine run
and well taken point for the equaliser,
quickly followed by another from brother
Brian for the lead. Eunan Donnelly
added his fourth point after
a good passing movement that started
at half back. It was now all St Paul's
and further points came from Eunan
Donnelly (free), Brian McElroy (35
metre free), Paul Murphy after a fine
run from half back and Kevin Murphy.
Ballykinlar had their
only second half point after 19 minutes
of the half to leave the scores St
Paul's 0-11 Ballykinlar 0-6. St Paul's
upped their game again and a Phil
Davey point followed by a well struck
Ross McWilliams goal and another point
from Kevin Murphy left St Paul's worthy
winners by 1-16 to 0-6. On their second
half performance St Paul's should
be a match for any of the sides left
in the championship.
