Bathshack Antrim Senior Hurling Championship
Preliminary round – 2nd leg
St John’s 2-21 Ballycastle 2-13
St John’s made it safely through to the round robin stage of the Antrim Senior Hurling Championship when they beat Ballycastle in the second leg of their preliminary round tie at Corrigan Park on Sunday. With a 14 point advantage from their first leg two weeks ago it was going to take a major turnaround to bring anything but a Johnnies win and though Ballycastle did perform much better than the first day they still lost out on the day by eight points.
Michael Dudley got St John’s on the scoreboard inside twenty seconds but Ballycastle came back with two Diarmuid McShane points and one from Rambo McCarry to lead 3-1. The visitors could have had a couple more in these early exchanges but were made to pay for their wayward shooting on nine minutes when Michael Bradley cut through from the right wing and fired home his team’s opening goal. Three top class points from Donal Carson, Peter McCallin and Michael Bradley, in reply to just one from McShane pulled the Corrigan Park men five clear but Ballycastle got back into the game when a long delivery into the St John’s goalmouth was deflected in by KB McShane.
This score lifted Ballycastle and for the remainder of the first half they matched the home side score for score and two points just before half time by Conor Boyd and TT Butler left just them just a point in arrears going into injury time. The north Antrim men would have been content going in at the break this close to their opponents but in the three minutes injury time added St John’s struck a telling blow when Donal Carson (who was brilliant in that opening half) was pulled down close to goal and Conor Johnston fired the resultant penalty low to the corner of the net.
Peter McCallin in action against Conor Donnelly. Pic by John McIlwaine
The four point gap was out to five as Dudley again scored within twenty seconds of the throw-in, this time at the start of the second half. Ballycastle were then awarded a twenty metre free and Diarmuid McShane stepped up and drilled the ball through the five man defensive wall and when his older brother KB added a point soon afterwards they gap was back to two. They were never going to overturn the aggregate deficit, which was now out to sixteen points, but they must have harboured thoughts of winning the second leg, but St John’s were able to up the pace and fend off the danger. With Conor Johnston leading the line from midfield they slowly but surely opened the gap, Johnston hitting four points himself while Dudley, Peter McCallin, Michael Bradley all added to the tally as they stretched the lead to nine by the 50th minute. Conor Boyd and KB McShane ended a fifteen minute scoreless spell for Ballycastle with two well take points, but man of the match Conor Johnston ended the scoring for the evening with two more points to seal an emphatic win which sees them advance to the Round Robin stage and a meeting with Loughgiel Shamrocks next weekend.
ST JOHN’S
Simon Doherty, Sean Wilson, Conal D Morgan, Aidan McMahon, Barry McFall, Ryan McNulty, Stephen Tierney, Peter McCallin, Jimmy Peoples, Conor Johnston, Colm McFall, Michael Bradley, Donal Carson, Micheal Dudley, Shea Shannon.
Declan Creggan for Colm McFall; Oisin Donelly for Ryan McNulty
BALLYCASTLE
Ciaran Butler, Oran Kearney, John McLister, Sean Connolly, Conor Donnelly, Matthew Donnelly, Shane McCarry, Conor Boyd, Ronan McCarry, Eamon Elliott, Shane Staunton, KB McShane, Aaron Mooney, TT Butler, Diarmuid McShane.
Subs – Ben McQuillan for Eamon Elliott; Oisin McAuley for TT Butler (inj);
Pics by John McIlwaine