ACFL Div. 1 - Kickhams Vs St. Pauls

Sunday, June 8, 2008

ACFL Div. 1
7 June 2008

Kickhams Creggan 1-11
St. Pauls 0-05

Creggan maintained their winning run with a routine victory over St. Pauls at Pairc í Ciceam on Saturday evening. The normal statto was unavailable to take the match notes so Barney Denvir stepped in to fill the void and record the actuals. Unfortunately Barney, in his apprentice statistician role, is still learning the ropes and forgot to take note of the scorers!

Anyway, on to the match where Kickhams started the much brighter of the two teams and they raced in to a 4-0 pts lead after 11 minutes. Mark Dougan and Leigh Martin being among the early scorers. St. Pauls managed to open their account in the 12th minute as they raised the white flag at the Creggan Road end. The home side responded with a point of their own a minute later which was cancelled out by another visitors score which proved to be their last of the first half.

The goal came in the 25th minute when a high ball was played in to the top of the square which Mark Dougan broke down in to the waiting arms of Leigh Martin who drove to the net to give Creggan a healthy cushion. A further two points were added to the score board for Kickhams to go in at the break with an eight point advantage.

Half Time Kickhams Creggan 1-07, St. Pauls 0-02

St. Pauls took to the task of clawing their way back in to this game by firing over a point after 23 seconds of the second half. This proved to be a false dawn though as Creggan were in no mood to relinquish their grip on proceedings and they popped over two points to increase their lead further. Scoring was at a premium in the second half with both sides raising the white flags twice more apiece to end the contest.

It was a good win for the Senior team and it moves them up to third spot in the league. There were a number of positional and personnel changes to the side with big Olly Duffin starting in midfield where he put in a good shift until being replaced in the second half by a bigger Paddy McAuley. Peter Graham retained his gloves between the posts and can by happy with his clean sheet and long kick outs. Tommy McCann moved out of the forward line in to the centre half back shirt where he was immaculate in both his reading of the game and his distribution. Perhaps this is his true position? Joe Robb filled the left half forward berth and he performed well too. Odhran McCann moved in to corner back and he done an excellent job of man marking his opponent.

Next up for the Division 1 side is a trip to Corrigan on Sunday 15th to take on St. Johns where they will hope to keep their winning run going.

Kickhams Team – Peter Graham, Odhran McCann, Dermot McCann, Caolan McCann (A full back line of McCanns!), Oistin McAteer, Thomas McCann, Mark Anthony McNicholl, Hugh McKay, Oliver Duffin (Paddy McAuley), Peter McCollum, Adrian Dougan, Joseph Robb, Odhran McLarnon, Mark Dougan (Capt.), Leigh Martin.