ACFL Division 1

Creggan 1-15  St. John’s 1-6

With first meeting third tonight the scene was set for a tight match as St. John’s sought to continue their unbeaten run in this year’s campaign. Their opponents Kickham’s Creggan had started their league campaign well but slipped up on their last two outings against St. Gall’s and St. Paul’s and were anxious to get their campaign up and running again.

Despite the fact that both teams were short a few regulars it didn’t let the tempo of the game slip in any way with the Kickham’s lads getting off to the quicker start and going into a three point lead through Conor Small (2) and Kevin Small. St John’s replied with two excellent Patrick McBride points to signal their intent before the score of the game arrived with the Johnston brothers Ricky and Marty going the length of the field before releasing Kevin Small who unleashed a thunderbolt to the roof of the net.

1.06 to 0.04 behind at the break St Johns cause received a further setback losing Adrian Oliver with a bad head injury. Kickham’s really took control of the match with Declan McCann, Odhran McLarnon and Sam Maguire covering every blade of grass on the field. And they pulled 1.12 to 0.05 clear thanks to some fantastic score taking by Ruairi and Tommy McCann.  To their credit St Johns kept battling and points form Patrick McBride and Stephen Tierney to keep their team in contention. Five minutes from time their efforts were rewarded with a goal of their own from the evergreen Kevin McGlinchey who, rose high to knock the ball home. However Kickham’s finished off a good night’s work in positive fashion with Frank McAuley feeding Oran McCann for the last point of the game to leave the final score Kickham’s 1.15 to St Johns 1.06.

This defeat and Cargin’s win over Rossa leaves the Toome side top of the league with St. John’s trailing by a point in second and Creggan a point further back in third place.