All County Football League – Division 2
Con Magees 0-12 Sarsfields 2-10
By Aodh O’Loan
Sarsfields will have returned to the city after this game thinking they dominated it for long periods and somehow stole the points at the end. They started well, ended well and got overturned in between. But in the end they had done enough to take the spoils and keep their promotion hopes well on track.
The Belfast men started brightly with a point from D McGuiness in the opening minute and were winning the opening exchanges comprehensively. Glenravel got turned over in a promising attack on four minutes and the city men moved the ball quickly in a counter attack which ended with C Lavery in front of goal, one on one with the keeper, having run the entire length of the pitch. He didn’t miss!! The very impressive half back went on to mount a tally of 1-03 over the sixty minutes. That score shook the home team into action and a series of five consecutive points from play and frees over a ten minute spell nudged them into a slight lead 0-05 to 1-01 half way through the first half. Back came Sars again with three on the trot as they carved open the local defence to put them two ahead. Both teams exchanged points on 21 and 22 minutes to leave The Paddies ahead 1-05 to 0-06. With five minutes of the half remaining Sarsfields were reduced to 14 men when referee Vincent Boyle issued a straight red card following a little indiscretion and Declan Traynor followed up with a nice point for Con Magees to reduce the deficit to two points with Sarsfields narrowly ahead at half time 1-06 to 0-07.
The second half was six minutes old before the first score came from the boot of Sean McKay and the next 6 minutes would produce three more points for the home team in a period which they totally dominated and were now leading by two points 0-11 to 1-06, Sarsfields, having failed to score in the opening 13 minutes of the second half. Time to re-group and reset the pace of the game. Sarsfields drew on their experience – slowed the pace down, made a few changes in personnel and gradually clawed themselves back into the game. D McGuinness again came to the rescue with a point from play before a blistering two minute spell, which yielded 1-02 between the 51st to 53rd minutes pushed them ahead by four on a 2-09 to 0-11scoreline. It was Glenravel’s turn to empty the subs bench but it was too late to recover from the body blow which the visitors had just delivered. Both teams did exchange points in the final minutes so when the referee called proceedings to a halt the city men had prevailed on a 2-10 to 0-12 scorelineOverall, this was a very good game of football, punctuated by mistakes from both teams but in the end the guile and craft of The Paddies got them over the line.
GLENRAVEL: Johnny Fyfe, Kieran McKeown, Paul McCurry, Aiden McCafferty, Charlie Henry, Niall Swann, Conleth O’Loan, David Higgins, Connor Carey, Josh McKeown, Declan Traynor, Aiden O’Donnell, Sean McKay, Martin McCarry, Conor McNeil
SARSFIELDS: – M Brady, E Melvyn, M McPolin, D Lavery, J Daniel, G McPolin, C Lavery, C Murray, N McKenna, D McKernan, D McGuinness, C McKernan, T Skillen, G Lennon, K Flynn.