Northern Switchgear Antrim SFC Group Four: Aghagallon 0-5 Creggan 1-8
From Cahair O’Kane at Aghagallon
THERE are very few group stages anywhere in Ireland where the first game carried as much significance as Creggan’s win over Aghagallon might.
Pete McGrath’s men from the Armagh border have been regular visitors to the latter stages of the championship in recent years but losing their home game leaves with a serious job on just to get out of the group.
They have new league champions St Brigid’s and a rejuvenated St Gall’s to come and already know that one win won’t be enough.
That was the sense of jeopardy that hung over a date that Creggan dealt with relatively well.
Someone, somewhere didn’t get the memo that this was the first weekend of August.
It teemed rain for most of the hour at St Mary’s, where the surface held up well but was unavoidably treacherous.
Joe Cassidy’s side capitalised with the game’s only goal when they laid a trap on Luke Mulholland’s short kickout, turned the ball over on the edge of the ‘D’ and Matthew Rodgers avoided the attempted hand-trip to roll home.
By that stage they were already forcing daylight to open thanks to a superb display of free-taking off the ground from Ruairi McCann.
He kicked a 45′ and two brilliant frees from the same distance in the third quarter as the Kickham’s one-point interval lead stretched out to four before Rodgers’ goal killed it off five minutes from time.
McCann’s namesake was a huge loss for Aghagallon, with their Ruairi serving a one-match ban that hung over from their defeat by Cargin last year. Adam Loughran was only fit for the last 10 minutes with Pat Brannigan bearing crutches and Oisin Lenehan missing as well.
Creggan were without the two Smalls, Conor and Kevin, as well as Marty Johnston from what they’re likely to have available come the knockout stages.
In terms of what they did have, the visitors had the best player of the first half in wing-back Jamie McCann.
No relation of Ruairi, he dictated so much of the early play. They brought a front-foot approach against a stiffish enough breeze, and deserved to be 0-4 to 0-3 ahead at the break.
The precariousness of it was evident when they were turned over at midfield with Oisin Kerr stranded out of his goal. Padraig Gowdy couldn’t have done much more with his 40-yard effort that cleared the back-tracking goalkeeper but rebounded to safety off the post.
Johnny Hannon was working hard to keep them alive and the roving David McAlernon found himself on a bit of ball, but their attempts to transition at any pace were thwarted by the aggression in the way Ricky Johnston and Aidan Maguire attacked anything kicked to spoil it with a hand in.
Gareth Magee had a bright start to the second half winning two frees in front of goal, pointing the first but crucially dropping the second short from 25 yards at 0-5 apiece.
It still took Creggan a long time to put the game away.
They had moments from all three of their sharp inside men, Dominic and Tiernan McAteer and Matthew Rodgers, without ever threatening to cut loose.
Sean Duffin saw more and more of the ball as the game went on, feeding Keelan McCann for an excellent point as they began to lengthen the stride away from their hosts.
Ruairi McCann’s frees created the gap and he controlled so much of their second half play the way his colleague Jamie (still no relation) had in the first half. They made Aghagallon chase it and while you wouldn’t call it overly comfortable, you couldn’t call it anything but deserved either.
Tiernan McAteer’s goal came to put it to bed.
It was clearly something they’d worked on, letting the Aghagallon kick go short down the middle before McAteer and Rodgers pounced and used the greasy conditions to strip the ball.
Creggan still have work to do. They’ve St Brigid’s at home and then St Gall’s up at Lamh Dhearg but will feel that they’ve at least broken a bit of the back of it.
Aghagallon are away to St Gall’s in a fortnight before facing St Brigid’s in Corrigan Park in their final game. Just getting out of the group is a big ask from here.
MATCH STATS
Aghagallon: Luke Mulholland (0-1 free); Kieran Hamill, Aidan Mulholland, Darryl McAlernon; Ciaran Magennis, Jamie Lamont, Eunan Walsh; Jack Lenahan (0-2), Padraig Gowdy; Pauric Magennis, Enda McCartan, Johnny Hannon (0-1 free); Gareth Magee (0-1 free), David McAlernon, Marc McAfee
Subs: S Devlin for P Magennis (40), C Magill for McCartan (50), A Loughran for McAfee (52)
Creggan: Oisin Kerr; Conor Óg McCann, Ricky Johnston, Aidan Maguire; Ethan Carey-Small, Ruairi McCann (0-3, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45), Jamie McCann (0-2, 0-1 free); Keelan McCann (0-2), Patrick McAuley; Sean Duffin, Conor Mór McCann, Tiernan McLarnon; Dominic McAteer, Tiernan McAteer, Matthew Rodgers (1-1)
Subs: Jpe McAteer for McAuley (48), S Maguire for T McLarnon (54), Jake McAteer for A Maguire (60)
Referee: C McDonald