Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship Group One: St John’s 0-9 Creggan Kickhams 0-9
CREGGAN Kickhams manager Gerard McNulty politely ushered a young girl away from the post-match huddle, probably so she wasn’t within earshot of what he was about to say to his players after they stumbled into the knock-out stages of this year’s Antrim championship at the expense of St John’s at Corrigan Park last night.
Standing in the middle of the circle, McNulty turned the air blue and hammered his players for their erratic second half display that almost saw the defending champions being dumped out at the group stages.
As it turned out, a draw was enough for the Kickhams to book a quarter-final meeting with O’Donovan Rossa in a fortnight’s time, but they were pushed all the way by their resilient hosts.
Cruising at 0-6 to 0-1 after 23 minutes and starving the Johnnies of possession, McNulty’s players didn’t stick to the process and appeared distracted by their opponents’ physical approach, especially in the second half.
St John’s hit their visitors hard and often – sometimes by fair means, sometimes by foul, as they finished last night’s fractious Group One clash with 13 men.
Substitute Conor Hand was red-carded for a crude kick on Ethan Carey Small in the 56th minute and Brian ‘Bam’ Neeson, who was liberated from his goalkeeper’s role and thrown into attack, suffered the same fate for an off-the-ball clash with Eunan McAteer in the dying seconds.
The Johnnies’ uncompromising approach and Patrick McBride’s dead-eyed accuracy in front of Creggan’s posts almost proved a winning combination.
However, losing Matthew Fitzpatrick from their starting line-up did untold harm to their chances, with the St John's talisman only fit to come on in the closing stages after sustaining a hand injury.
Not even ‘Bam’, ‘Fitzy’ and McBride could conjure a late winner that St John’s desperately needed to progress in the championship.
Andy McGowan and Simon McDonagh emptied the tank for the home side and just as it seemed the Belfast men would somehow find a way to win, Creggan captain Kevin Small and Marty Johnston found their range in the last quarter to kill off the stubborn rebellion.
“I’m disappointed with the way we played,” fumed McNulty afterwards.
“That was 60 minutes of championship football and we did not perform at all. Our defence was running forward and we were a point ahead? If that had been a level game at that stage, we would have been out of the championship.
“I think some of our guys were trying to prove a point, and that’s not what it’s about. We should have kept that ball and kept it and kept it like we did in the first 20 minutes of the game.
“It was just not good enough, and if that’s an example of championship football in Antrim it’s not good enough, because that was a very poor game and a poor standard. And that’s a team I’m managing.”
Ruairi McCann converted three first half placed balls for the visitors and Creggan full-forward Dominic McAteer bagged two fine points from play.
Playing midfield and looking sharp, McBride was doing his best to keep the Johnnies in the game with three points – and he led the charge in the second period with four more points.
Creggan couldn’t replicate their smooth economy of the first half and failed to register a score between the 23rd ad 41st minutes. In between times, St John’s threw everything at Creggan and drew level [0-8 apiece] in the 53rd minute through Conal McGlade.
But they could never quite get their noses in front.
“We got distracted too easily,” McNulty noted. “Are there benefits from the game? Absolutely. We now know what it’s like to play a team who will just not let you play and hit you on the counter.”
St John’s: B Neeson; C Johnston, C Garland, J Garland (0-1); R Hannigan, P Nugent, P Donnelly; S McDonagh, P McBride (0-7, 0-5 frees); R McNulty, C Johnston, A McGowan; C McGlade (0-1), L McCurdy, L Peden Subs: C Hand for R Hannigan (42), L Heenan for P Donnelly, M Fitzpatrick for L McCurdy (52), M Leydon for L Heenan (52)
Yellow cards: C Garland (19), J Garland (24), M Fitzpatrick (57)
Red cards: C Hand (56), B Neeson (64)
Creggan Kickhams: O Kerr; EC Small, R Johnston, E McAteer (0-1); A Maguire, M Johnston (0-1), J McCann; K Small (0-1), K McCann; T McAteer, F Burke, O McLarnon; L Quinn, D McAteer (0-2), R McCann (0-4 frees) Subs: K Rice for F Burke (45), S Duffin for L Quinn (53), K Burke for J McCann (61), C McCann for E McAteer (64)
Blood sub: S Duffin for O McLarnon (26 to h/t)
Referee: D McKeown
Antrim SFC quarter-final draw: Creggan Kickhams v Rossa, Cargin v Lamh Dhearg; Portglenone v Gort na Mona; St Brigid's v Aghagallon (games to be played September 9/10/11)
