Senior Reserve Football Cup
Monday August 26
Roger Casements, Portglenone 3-20 St Brigids 0-8
Brendan McTaggart reports from O’Cahan Park, Portglenone
Portglenone reserves added to their senior victory in the championship on Sunday with a resounding win over St Brigids on Monday evening. A goal from forward Niall Kelly along with three first half points and a man of the match performance from midfielder Stephen Kelly that included five points in the first half helped the Casements to a 21 point win. Second half goals from substitutes Peter Duffin and Eoin Kelly added gloss to the score line with the south Belfast side struggling to curtail the fluent movement and attacking play of the home side.
Peter Henvey finished top scorer for St Brigid’s with six points to his name but they struggled in the first half. Leading by 1-11 to 0-2 at the short whistle, the Casement’s already had one foot in the next round and while St Brigid’s competed better after the interval, the home side continued to play an impressive brand of football with Paddy Carey pulling the strings in centre half and Corey McLaughlin more involved as the match progressed.
The first goal came in the 18th minute with Niall Kelly firing in after St Brigid’s ‘keeper Kevin McGovern had denied him seconds earlier. The two second half goals came within three minutes of each other – Peter Duffin showing his expert finishing with a sublime finish to the bottom corner in the 55th minute before turning provider for Eoin Kelly three minutes later.
The most impressive stat of the night comes from the fact all of the Portglenone scores came from open play while they had 11 different scorers. Something that will please their management going forward as they look forward to a meeting with St John’s in the semi-final.
TEAMS
Portglenone: Brian McManus; Adrian McKeever, Adrian Anderson, Declan Dobbin; Conor McGhee, Paddy Carey, Aidan Kearney; Brendan Donnelly, Stephen Kelly; Oisin Doherty (c), Mark Graham, Paddy Graffin; Corey McLaughlin, Niall Kelly, Donal Murphy.
Scorers: Niall Kelly 1-3; Stephen Kelly 0-5; Oisin Doherty 0-3; Peter Duffin 1-00; Eoin Kelly 1-00; Corey McLaughlin 0-2; Paddy Carey 0-2; Adrian Carey 0-2; Eoin Doherty 0-1; Conor McGhee 0-1; Declan Dobbin 0-1.
St Brigids: Kevin McGovern; Peter Heaney, Henry McGuigan, Ciaran Mackle; Brian Hallihan, Andy Brennan, Paul Finnegan; Eddie McKeever, Ryan Murtagh; Ronan Gallen, Peter Henvey, Gerard Henvey; Damien McGee, Mark Quinn, Barry McMahon.
Scorers: Peter Henvey 0-6 (4 f’s, 1 ’45); Damien McGee 0-1; Eddie McKeever 0-1.
Referee: Barry Hotchkiss (Glenavy)
