Josh McKeown who scored five points in Con Magees win over St Comgall’s
O’Neill’s All County Football League – Division 3
Con Magees 0-12 St Comgall’s 0-10
Pics by Dylan McIlwaine
Con Magees kept their hopes of promotion to Division 2 alive when they beat fellow contenders St Comgall’s in a tough encounter at Fr Maginn Park on Sunday. A week after winning the Junior Championship the Glenravel men found this challenge equally as tough as last week’s final win over St Patrick’s Lisburn, as they were made to fight all the way by the Antrim town men. The visitors led by two at half time and it took a strong second half display, and the accuracy of Josh McKeown to get the Glenravel men over the line at the end.
St Comgall’s corner forward Miles Devine was proving a real handful for the Con Magees defence in the opening half and after the home side had twice edged ahead with points from Josh McKeown and David Higgins, Devine fired over replies at the other end. Midfielder Caolan McKeown pointed a free to give St Comgall’s the lead midway through the first half and they went on to have the better of the second quarter as left corner forward Patrick Cooke, Devine yet again, and right-half forward Ruairi Griffin all added points from play and in reply to excellent points from Josh McKeown and one from a Conor McNeill free.
Trailing by 0-5 to 0-7 as the second-half got underway knew they needed a good start if they were to keep their league hopes alive and that is exactly what they got as Declan Traynor and Conor Carey grabbed the first two points of the half to bring their team level. The returning Yank, Eamon Fyfe, who had been introduced as a sub during the first half, put them ahead with a point in the 40th minute and Josh McKeown put them two clear at the midway point of the second half with a pointed free.
It took St Comgall’s all of 20 minutes to open their second half account, but when they did they soon made it two, centre forward Peter McAuley the man on target on both occassions and suddenly the game was back in the melting pot with ten minutes still to play. Glenravel got their noses back in front in the the 53rd minute with a point from corner forward Conor McNeill and when substitute Conor Carey grabbed his second of the game in the 60th the win seemed secure. Not so however as St Comgall’s hit back with an injury time point from a free by centre-half-back Paddy Quinn jnr to cut the arrears to the minimum once again and it took a 65th minute point from a free by man of the match Josh McKeown to seal the win and keep his team’s promotion hopes alive.