ACFL Div. 1 - St. Johns Vs Kickhams
ACFL Div. 1
15 June 2008
St. Johns 1-05
Kickhams Creggan 0-11
Creggan travelled up to Corrigan Park on Sunday evening to face a St. Johns side who were banking on claiming the league points on offer, after they defeated Cargin at the same venue the previous week. Somebody forgot to tell them though that our boys are made of sterner stuff and do not get rolled over….although they had certainly got the message by the end of this encounter.
Conditions were good for the game as the sun shone down, but there was a fairly stiff breeze blowing down the pitch which St. Johns had the advantage of for the first half.
Charlie Devlin got the score board rolling by knocking over the first point of the match with a well taken effort. Charlie was making his first senior start for a long time after being out through injury and it was good to see his ginger head back in the thick of the action. The Johnnies responded by kicking over two points to take the lead, but parity was restored when Peter McCollum converted a great point from a tight angled free on 12 minutes.
Disaster struck the visitors plans when St. Johns put the ball to the net from close range to take a 3 point advantage. Indeed at this stage, they had their tails up and they popped over another point to move further ahead. Creggan needed to get themselves back into this match quickly and fortunately they did so by recording three points in a row in a six minute spell. The Dougan brothers getting the points among themselves. Tony Close made his introduction in to the side after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a groin strain for the unfortunate Mark Anthony who pulled up with a hamstring strain. Let’s hope it’s not too serious and M.A. is back soon.
St. Johns rallied though and responded by raising the white flag twice more to undo Creggan’s good work. The last score of the half was from the boot of Peter McCollum to leave two points between the sides at the break, St. Johns 1-05, Kickhams 0-06.
The second half proved to be a very tight and tense affair with no quarter asked or given in the challenges. Some being of the industrial and illegal variety to say the least! Full credit to the Creggan team and the defence in particular as they held the Corrigan Park side scoreless in the second period which was a great feat. Scores were at a premium and it was Mark Dougan who claimed the first one by converting a free kick on 3 minutes. It was a full 15 minutes before the equalizer finally came when Odhran McLarnon split the posts. Game on!
This match could have gone one of two ways, and it was the visitors who dug the deepest and showed the most desire to see it through and get the win. Creggan contrived to kick 4 wides in a row and the support was wondering if indeed the game was going to end in a draw. With one minute to go however, Kickhams were awarded a free kick and substitute Ciaran McCartney slotted over with his right boot to take the lead. In the 30th minute the best score of the match was scored by Tommy McCann when he soloed straight through the Johnnies defence and struck a sweet point with the outside of his left foot straight over the bar…quality. The icing was put on the cake when Ciaran McCartney punished some indiscipline by the home ranks by converting a final free kick to ensure Creggan ran out 3 point winners.
This was a great victory for the Senior team who have proved they can mix it up and still play the better football to see off teams. Next up is another tough match with a trip to Toome to face Cargin in the opening of their pitch at the start of July.
Kickhams Team – Peter Graham, Caolan McCann, Dermot McCann, Odhran McCann, Mark Anthony McNicholl (Tony Close), Tommy McCann (0-01), Oistin McAteer, Hugh McKay, Oliver Duffin, Peter McCollum (0-02), Adrian Dougan (0-01), Charlie Devlin (0-01) (Turloch McAteer), Odhran McLarnon (0-01), Mark Dougan (0-03), Joe Robb (Ciaran McCartney 0-02))
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