Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship
St Brigids 0-11 Aghagallon 3-14
Paul McIntyre reports from Musgrave Park
When these two sides met on the opening day of the championship, it took a last minute Aghagallon goal to seal a four-point win in what was a very nip and tuck championship battle. Just like that day, the St Mary’s also found the net in the dying moments of this encounter when Man of the Match Gareth Magee picked out Adam Loughran to smash the ball into the St Brigids net, but on this occasion, this score was the cherry on top of a convincing win.
Once Magee had equalised James Smith’s opener, Aghagallon never trailed their hosts. Scoring bursts in the first and third quarters did the damage as Kevin Murray’s side found their scores easier to come by. While Magee top scored, he had quite a supporting cast in Adam Loughran, Jack Lenehan while Daniel Donnelly was a strong voice in a very rigid defence.
While St Brigids had their fair share of possession, they found a crowded defence difficult to break down. While Jack Dowling and Peter King tried to punch holes in the visitors back division, they were left to rely on frees from Ronan McGrady for their scores.
In the early stages a scoring dual between McGrady and Magee looked like being the story of the match with both marksmen proving accurate from frees. McGrady’s 40 metre from the ground on 20 minutes being the pick of them. A minute later and it was advantage Aghagallon. Adam Loughran fielded Luke Mulholland’s kick out and ran at the heart of the home defence. He passed to Conleth McAlinden who gave Allen no chance in the home goal.
Despite dominating both kick outs, St Brigids could only muster one more score in the half. McGrady’s quickly taken free picked out Ryan Tweedy who kicked between the sticks, but with Magee landing a further three points, the visitors kicked themselves into a seven-point half time lead, 1-8 to 0-4.
St Brigids thought they had found a way back into the tie when Ethan Carleton found the net after Mulholland could only parry Joe Finnegan’s shot, but the goal was cancelled out for a square ball infringement.
Two early second half frees from McGrady brought St Brigids back to five points of their opponents but the visitors looked the more menacing in attack. Ruairi McCann brought out the best in Allen as Aghagallon went in search of a second and match winning goal, and that goal duly arrived in the 38th minute.
With his first touch, the recently introduced Oisin Lenehan picked out Marc McAfee and the corner forward picked out the bottom corner of the St Brigids net. The South Belfast side added two further scores through McGrady frees but at the second half water break Eunan Convery’s men still trailed by eight points.
Aghagallon kept their discipline as St Brigids launched attack after attack but they were forced back time and time again by a wall of green shirts. With the ‘Biddies’ putting everything in attack, Aghagallon were able to pick off scores on the break as Magee knocked over three frees before kicking one from play to bring his tally to eleven for the evening.
There was still time for one more score and this time Magee turned provider as his cross-field pass put Loughran in the clear and he finished emphatically to cap off an excellent team performance and a resounding twelve-point win. A win that has them with one foot in the quarter-finals of this year’s championship.
Teams & Scorers
St Brigids: Jamie Allen, Diarmuid McLaughlin, Conor King, Finn McKernan, Patrick Finnegan, Chris Quinn, John Toner, Jack Dowling (0-2), Peter King, John Morgan, Joe Finnegan, Ryan Tweedy (0-1), Ronan McGrady (0-7 6f), James Smith (0-1 1m), Ethan Carleton.
Subs: Niall Lundy & Rory Brolly for Joe Finnegan & Diarmuid McLaughlin, both HT, Paul Bradley for Ethan Carleton, 45 minutes & Brian McCarthy for Niall Lundy 47 minutes.
Aghagallon: Luke Mulholland (0-1 1’45’), Aidan Mulholland, Daniel Donnelly, Ryan O’Neill, Jamie Lamont, Patrick Branagan, Paul Mulholland, Jack Lenehan, Darryl McAlernon (0-1), Eunan Walsh, Adam Loughran (1-0), Ruairi McCann, Marc McAfee (1-1), Conleth McAlinden (1-0), Gareth Magee (0-11, 6f).
Subs: Oisin Lenehan & Jonathan Harbinson for Darryl McAlernon & Conleth McAlinden both 38 minutes, Michael McStravick for Marc McAfee 52 minutes, Steven Branagan & Ruairi Loughran for Jonathan Harbinson & Aidan Mulholland, both 59 minutes.
Referee: Mr Colm McDonald.
