The returning Dermot McAleese played his part in Casement’s Portglenone victory over St. Gall’s on Sunday at Milltown.
St Galls 1-10 Casements 1-11
St Galls hosted Portglenone on Sunday evening in Milltown just three weeks after their visitors interrupted an impressive ten game winning streak before the league split into two divisions. Admittedly St Galls were badly understrength on that occasion so manager Sean Kelly with a more formidable panel available would have been optimistic about returning to winning ways. However resurgent Casements had ideas of their own and after 60 minutes of end to end action, it was the enigmatic South West team who held on by a single point for the victory and move into joint fifth place alongside County Champions Lamh Dhearg.
There were some mouth-watering line ups, especially at midfield where Aodhan Gallagher went toe to toe with Niall Mc Keever, and Mickey Pollock renewed company once again with Niall Delargy. It was the latter who opened proceedings when he won a ball around the middle third and played a one two with impressive youngster Ronan Kelly to blast past St Galls custodian Chris Kerr with the game just two minutes old. The entire first half was nip and tuck, and CJ Mc Gourty didn’t need a second invitation to slide the ball past Ryan O Neill for a St Galls major, and the teams were level at 1 -06 apiece at the break.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first. Good intelligent football was evident from both sides, with little room for error. McGourty did miss an easy one on one chance by his standards around 45 minutes but Ryan O Neill got down low to turn the ball wide of his post, and within minutes this discretion was wiped out when normally reliable Gerard McAleese left the ball behind when an obvious goal was looking certain.
Kevin Niblock, Ciaran McGourty and Niall O Neill tried hard to pull the hosts into a winning position but the visitors weren’t showing any signs of going away, and a bit of frustration crept into the game as an obvious dog fight for points ensued. Jackson Mc Greevy and CJ Mc Gourty were reprimanded by referee Eamon Mc Auley as a result.
The returning Dermot Mc Aleese and Ronan Delargy were causing trouble with their pace on the wings, and the young legs of Ryan Convery and Ciaran McKenna were punching holes through the middle of St Galls defence, and Sean Kelly entered the fray himself to stem the tide, but the truth is this game was always going to the wire. Both goalmouths experienced an anxious moment or two. With a minute left Ronan Kelly sent a 40 yard monster between the posts from wide on the side-line and with umpires at odds, the referee used his own judgement and reached for his notebook to mark up the score