Northern Switchgear Antrim SFC Group 2, round three
St John’s 1-14 O’Donovan Rossa 1-13
SEVEN up, a man up, St John’s would have thrown up if they’d messed this up – but in the end-up they finished a point up on west Belfast rivals Rossa after some typical derby drama.
Two red cards and a missed penalty leading to a ‘six-point swing’ contributed to the entertainment as the Johnnies looked like they might lose a match they had seemed to be winning comfortably.
A draw would have done them to progress to the quarter-finals so they were doubly delighted when centre half-back Andy McGowan pushed up in added time to send over his third point from play and fend off what would have been a memorable Rossa comeback.
The Shaw’s Road side looked to be down and out when they trailed by 1-12 to 0-8 in the 44th minute, especially as they were a man down since the 23rd minute when the experienced Stephen Beatty got himself sent off for striking McGowan.
Although Dominic McEnhill reduced the deficit slightly, St John’s then seemed set to go nine ahead when they were awarded a penalty after Darren Grego dragged down Ryan McNulty.
However, defender Conor McEvoy sent the spot-kick high and wide – and within a minute the gap was three, not nine. McEnhill followed up as his blocked shot looped up and rose to fist the ball to the net and it was 1-12 to 1-9.
Worse was to follow for the Johnnies. Teenage attacker Daire King, who been a lively presence following his introduction for the second half, kicked out after a tangle with Niall Crossan and was dismissed.
With the wind mostly at their backs, Rossa tails were up, and the accurate free-taking of Colm Fleming kept reducing the deficit.
Then, in the first minute of added time, goalkeeper Michael Byrne pushed up and found Crossan, who guided over a levelling score, 1-13 apiece.
The win Rossa required to reach the last eight was within their grasp, but McGowan snatched it away from them, much to the relief of St John’s boss Aaron Douglas:
“My goodness, right to the wire. I’d said during the week that there’s never anything between us, and it was the same again… Thank God we came out on the right end of it.”
Although he’s in his third season in charge of the seniors, Douglas pointed out that it’s an altered panel, including a fair few youngsters:
“That’s a young squad we have, we’ve had to play a lot of minors – there’s kids going to play Minor Championship [on Sunday] who started that game. Fair play, they stepped up, made their debut, and stood tall.”
That made the need for experience even greater, and McGowan provided that, to the delight of his boss: “Andy is very athletic and strong, he breaks lines, can take a score off either foot. He’s only coming to his peak at the moment because he was working on his fitness for a few months and he’s now fully fit. It’s great to see him doing well.”
Although all the final quarter excitement was a contrast to what had gone before, the game had still been tight until St John’s grabbed the opening goal through corner-forward Conall Quinn after 40 minutes.
Young King provided the assist, taking a pass from hard-running wing-back Ronan Quinn and breaking through a Rossa defensive line before supplying Quinn to shoot low past Byrne.
Patrick McBride soon added his third point from play and when corner-back Enda McGurk popped up to score that seemed to put the icing on the cake for St John’s.
Yet Rossa had shown their ability before that, keeping themselves in the game despite facing into a stiff breeze in the first half, and then going a man down.
That had been a double blow because McEnhill had been showing well as a target man but then dropped deeper when Beatty was dismissed.
When the Rossa full-forward pushed up again he proved his attacking threat, but the men in yellow around him, apart from free-taker Fleming, didn’t provide enough scoring support to edge themselves ahead at any stage.
The match might have taken on a different complexion had Rossa got the first goal, but Grego saw a 12th minute shot come back off a post after being set up by McEnhill.
Even so, Hugh McGettigan’s men battled right to the end, but it’s St John’s who go through to take on Group 3 winners Casement’s of Portglenone.
St John’s E R Lambert; E McGurk (0-1), J Garland, C McEvoy; L Peden, A McGowan (0-3), R Quinn; A Oliver, C Bohill; R McNulty, P McBride (0-3), R Donnelly (0-2, 0-1 free); S Tierney, C Adams (0-4, 0-1 free, 0-1 mark), C Quinn (1-1).
Subs D King for Garland (h-t); R Hannigan for Peden (56); D McKeogh for Tierney (63).
Rossa: M Byrne; P Moyes, G Walsh, C Orchin; D Grego, A Devlin, N Crossan (0-1); R Grant (0-2), O McVicker; C Fleming (0-6 frees), T Morgan (0-1), C McDonnell; D Rogan, D McEnhill (1-2, 0-1 free), S Beatty (0-1)
Subs R Gowdy for Moyes (inj., 32, first half); J Morris for McDonnell (39); C Walsh for Rogan (57); R Murray for Grego (63).
Referee C McDonald (St Gall’s).