O’Neill’s All County Football League – Division 1
St Mary’s Ahoghill 0-4 St Enda’s 2-11
Newly promoted St Enda’s got their Division 1 League campaign off to very good start when they travelled to Ahoghill on Wednesday evening and beat St Mary’s by 2-11 to 0-4 in a game that was not one for the purist. If it is ever released on DVD I doubt if the sales around Ahoghill will be too high as they failed to score in the opening half, hit their first score from play in the fifty second minute and only scored twice from play overall. Conditions for scoring were difficult it has to be said, with a strong diagonal wind blowing and a bumpy pitch, but St Enda’s coped much better and worked the ball into good scoring positions, whereas Ahoghill tried shots from impossible positions that were never going to work. The St Mary’s men are a tough resiliant side who time and time again punch above their weight in this division. However tonight things just would not go their way, no matter how hard they tried, and this is one they will want to put behind them.
When the sides last met in January in the O’Cahan Cup Ahoghill won it quite easily as St Enda’s had a few regulars missing. This time the roles were reversed with the home side missing a few, but to be fair to the visitors it may not have affected the result even if they had played.
The Saints took and early lead when Odhran Eastwood pointed a free from the left corner but it was to be a further nine minutes until the next flag was raised, Eastwood again the scorer, and once again from a free. Ahoghill were putting a few good move together but they lacked the finish, and in one such move in the eighth minute right half forward Patrick Graham was put through on goal but appeared to kick with the wrong foot and the ball skewed badly wide.
Odhran Eastwood got his, and his team’s third point, and first from play, on thirteen minutes when he swung over a real beauty with the outside of his right boot and less than a minute later full forward Peter Healy added another fine score to pull the visitors 0-4 to 0-0 clear. Ahoghill had further chances to break their duck, both from play and from frees but it was one of those night when nothing would work for the Clooney men and when Ruairi Scott added a point followed by a goal from Donal Walsh the visitors were 1-5 to 0-0 to the good at the break.
When Ahoghill opened the second half with a point inside a minute through full forward Donal Graham, their supporters must have felt they might be in with a chance of a comeback, but the score was soon cancelled out when corner forward Eoin Nagle rose in the square to palm a dropping ball over the Ahoghill crossbar. Graham replied with his second a minute later but St Enda’s continued to dominate and four points on the trot from Ruair Scott, Odhran Eastwood (2) and Michael Morgan ended any lingering hopes the home side may have had. Donal Graham hit is third point on fifty two minutes and centre forward James O’Connell sent one over from thirty metres, but St Enda’s finished with a flurry as Kristian Healy soloed through for a fine point before Eastwood fired home a penalty with the last kick of the game.
AHOGHILL
Pearse Downey, Conor Neeson, Diarmuid Graham, Bernard Graham, Eamon Brady, Dominic Neeson, Justin Downey, Sean O’Connell, Thomas McGlone, Patrick Graham, James O’Connell, Fionbarr O’Neill, Eoin Graham, Donal Graham.
ST ENDA’S
Paddy Flood, Cillian Jennings, Damian Gault, Michael McNamee, Ryan Kennedy, James McAuley, Conan Lyttle, Philip Curran, Ruairi Scott, Donal Walsh, Kristian Healy, Michael Morgan, Eoin Nagle, Peter Healy, Odhran Eastwood.
Referee – Sean Laverty (Moneyglass)