O’Neill’s ACFL Division 1
Aghagallon 5-14 Glenavy 2-8
St. Mary’s Aghagallon claimed the bragging rights over neighbours, St. Joseph’s Glenavy with a comprehensive win in this first round win after the split in division 2B. Glenavy made the short journey to Pairc Na Gael in Aghagallon on Sunday afternoon in an effort to kick start the second half of their season on the positive with some much needed points and also gain some revenge from their earlier league defeat by the men in green. However, the Aghagallon men signalled their intent from the start and let the visitors know that nothing was going to be given away easy in front of their home support.
It was the home sidewho settled first and raced into a four point lead after 9 minutes with points from Ciaran Brady, Ruairi McCann, Gareth Magee and Eunan Walsh. The Glenavy men were having their fair share of possession in the opening stages but found the hard working St Mary’s defence hard to break down with multiple attacks being turned over from bringing the ball into the tackle. However, in the 10th minute they did create an opening when full forward Dominic Gallagher managed to turn his marker and strike the ball low across the goal, only to see his shot rebound of the post and back into play to his namesake Charles, who managed to evade the defender and send the ball over the bar to get them up and running.
Instead of spurring the Glenavy men on, it was St Mary’s who responded better for the next 20 minsutes, outscoring their opponents 3-3 to 0-1 to leave the orange men with a mountain to climb in the second half.
The first goal from Niall McShane after 21minutes who drilled his shot low and hard to the net and gave the men in green some just reward for their positive approach to the game. It was quickly followed up by another goal a minute later when some good defensive work from Paul Mulholland and Eunan Walsh forced a turnover inside the Glenavy half and the latter went on to support the attack and ended up firing past the helpless Donard Shannon in the Glenavy goals. This put some daylight between the teams and when a third goal was dispatched by Gareth Magee in the 27th minute after another Glenavy attack was foiled it seemed like the roof was caving in on them as they tried to see the half out to the short whistle and regain their composure.
HT Aghagallon 3-7 Glenavy 0-2
With a lot of work to do, Glenavy to their credit came out in the second half with a more positive attacking approach to their game to try and eat into the 14 pointt deficit. They took the game to their near neighbours and outscored their opponents by 1-5 to 0-2 in the third quarter to reduce the deficit to 8 points. Goal scorer Fergus Cunningham and substitute Alex Gallagher were leading the frontline and trying to build a bit of momentum in the game. In fact, if it hadn’t been for an excellent reaction save from the Aghagallon net minder Gavin O’Neill, who was able to deflect a Thomas Gallagher effort over the bar, the deficit might have been reduced to just 6six points with 15minutes remaining, which might have given the away support something to cheer for going down the home straight. As it happened, Aghagallon were able to regain a foothold in the game with Gareth Magee punishing any indiscretions by the Glenavy defence and a first point at senior level from substitute Adam Loughran stretching the lead back out to 11 points with six minutes remaining.
With time running out Glenavy tried to revert to the long ball into their forward unit in a final effort to get something from the game but the St Mary’s defence were once again equal to the challenge and were able to strike on the counter attack with another two well worked goals in two minutes from substitute Mark McAfee and the hard working Ruairi McCann. This was followed up with a collector’s item point from half back Paul Mulholland to finish off another good team move in what was a hard working team display in which they showed better composure and game management than their opponents.
The men in orange did get another goal at the death from midfielder James Gallagher, but it was scant consolation for them after a miserable afternoon, and now they must regroup ahead of their remaining four league fixtures as they try to hold on to their Division 1 status.
Photographs: Bert Trowlen at Pairc Na Gael