Northern Switchgear Antrim SFC Group4, round two
St Gall’s, Belfast 3-9 St Mary’s, Aghagallon 3-14
EVEN a ‘group of death’ needs knockout football, or something close to that traditional method, to bring it to life and these two sides certainly produced a thriller.
Aghagallon revived their hopes of reaching a third consecutive final with this extremely hard-fought win - but although St Gall’s are almost in zombie mode they haven’t quite been killed off yet.
The west Belfast men would need a big win over Creggan combined with a third victory for group leaders St Brigid’s over Aghagallon in order for the calculators to come out but they merit that faint glimmer of hope for their efforts on Saturday evening.
Indeed for stretches of this clash the youthful St Gall’s looked likelier winners, and battled back to trail by only a point going into added time, 3-9 to 2-13, as the lively Brendan Bradley netted their third goal from the penalty spot.
However, the St Mary’s side had the more experienced heads, and also big performers up front in more ways in one in the duo of Eunan Walsh and Ruairi McCann. The former’s pace earned a free converted by Jonathan Hannon and then the latter brought back another old school element, bundling man and ball into the net after a goalmouth scramble for the concluding score of the match.
Aghagallon also have one of the most experienced managers around, Down legend Pete McGrath, who signalled his relief at grinding out the win:
“I’m very, very pleased, because at different points in the game St Gall’s looked as if they could have gone over the horizon and into the distance. What we had to show at those particular points in the game was character and energy and good football, which we produced.
“I’m very pleased with the courage and intent and purpose that the players showed, because this was an authentic championship game. We knew what we had to produce in order to keep ourselves in the competition, and we did that.”
St Gall’s joint-manager Terry O’Neill was entitled to feel hard done by about a couple of controversial incidents, including one which contributed to them playing the crucial closing stages a man short.
Substitute Conor Burke, rightly black-carded for hauling down McCann, then seemed to be harshly sent off when a yellow card swiftly followed for his complaints that his opponent had pulled him first as they chased the ball.
Given that his sin-binning occurred in the 52nd minute Burke would only have been back on for a couple of minutes of added time, but numerical parity might have made a difference on the scoreboard at that tense stage.
O’Neill acknowledged that Aghagallon’s championship know-how probably showed, but admitted he found some of the officiating questionable:
“I don’t really want to comment on referees and linesmen, it’s a hard enough job as it is… Conor Burke got a black card, probably rightly so, but that was then followed up with a yellow.
“From what I heard where I was standing, he wasn’t abusive to the linesman: he asked the question was it not a foul against him in the first place, which I think was a fair enough question. The less said, the better.”
As for the score which ultimately sealed the victory, Aghagallon’s third goal, O’Neill said: “I though it was a foul, I thought it was a foul on the goalkeeper just before that when he [Walsh] went to dip the ball because he slid in, then I thought he put our man over the line.
“But, listen, maybe we shouldn’t have let the ball get that far up the field, and it’s happened now, we can’t do anything about it.”
Both sides showed enough moments of quality to suggest they can get wins next time out, at neutral venues.
Aghagallon may well deploy the combination of Walsh and McCann up front, while St Gall’s will draw confidence from how much they contributed to this game themselves.
Walsh, immediately pushed into attack, sent over two fine early scores, but the first goal of the match, in the eighth minute, changed its momentum.
Corner-forward Niall O’Neill, a younger brother of Terry, rose to punch in a cross-shot from Daniel Quinn, and St Gall’s added the next three points to lead 1-4 to 0-3.
Aghagallon worked their way back into the game, though, and Walsh and McCann teamed up for Gareth Magee to sneak a near-post shot into the net, leading to level pegging at half-time, 1-5 apiece.
St Gall’s enjoyed a superb start to the second half, Niall O’Neill appearing to get a touch to a high delivery from Michael Hopkins and the game settled into tit-for-tat after that.
The key score arguably came as the match approached the three-quarter mark. The wily Daryl McAlernon delivered long to Walsh, who laid the ball off, allowing the onrushing wing-back Padraig Gowdy to shoot low to the net.
McGrath noted the importance of that moment, even though it only left matters level at 2-7 apiece: “We needed a goal, a goal was always going to be a massive forward leap. We then had momentum, which we cashed in on.”
Indeed Aghagallon stretched their lead out to five points and St Gall’s seemed finished when Burke saw cards of all three colours.
Yet the hosts actually responded well to going a man down, with points from full-forward Michael Pollock and sub Callum Walsh, before O’Neill was clattered and Bradley confidently converted the spot-kick.
A famous comeback was on the cards, but Aghagallon ruthlessly ended those hopes, as Terry O’Neill ruefully noted:
“That’s a pretty young team we have and there was probably a bit of naivety, lack of championship nous, whatever you want to call it. Fair play to Aghagallon, they have that experience and when it came to the crunch time, they made the opportunities and took them.”
As his counterpart McGrath noted, though, progress is not entirely in the hands of the St Mary’s men – nor is it entirely out of reach for St Gall’s.
There’s life in this ‘Group of Death’ yet…
St Gall’s: C Kerr; M Donnelly (capt.), T Keenan, E McCurdy; J McCaffrey (0-1), C McGirr (0-1), C McCabe; M McCrossan, C Ryan; N Burns (0-1 free), B Bradley (1-2, 1-0 penalty), M Hopkins; N O’Neill (2-1, 0-1 mark), M Pollock (0-2), D Quinn.
Substitutes: G Mac Adhaimh for McCrossan; C Burke for McCurdy; C Walsh (0-1) for O’Neill; N Fallon for Hopkins.
Aghagallon: L Mulholland; K Hamill, A Mulholland, C Maginnis; S Devlin, J Lamont, P Gowdy (1-1); M McAfee, David McAlernon; G Magee (1-0), Daryl McAlernon, Jonathan Hannon (0-7, 0-6 frees); J Lenehan , R McCann (1-1), E Walsh (0-3).
Substitutes: O Lenehan for David McAlernon; E McCartan (0-1) for Magee; P Maginnis (0-1) for Devlin; Jack Hannon for Gowdy; J McCormick for P Maginnis (inj.).
Referee: Conall Roberts (St John’s)
