McCann guides Kickham’s to victory

Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship Group Four

St Gall’s 0-8 Creggan 2-10

Ruairi McCann was the architect in chief as Creggan advanced to the Antrim SHC quarter-finals as Group Four winners following a comfortable 2-10 to 0-8 win over St Gall’s at De La Salle Park on Wednesday night.

Matthew Rodgers scrambled home their opening goal midway through the first half after Chris Kerr had made a good save to deny Paddy Coey.

St Gall’s never really looked like winning this game save for a good opening spell to the secons half when they shot four unanswered points, but that was as close as they got with the Kickham’s replying from the penalty spot through Ruairi McCann to give them breathing space and they saw the game out in impressive fashion.

Creggan will await the runner-up of Group One, likely to be either Rossa or St John’s, in the quarter-finals while St Gall’s now seem certain to face old rivals Cargin in the knock-out stages.

St Gall’s opened the scoring with a Barra McCaffrey free on five minutes, but they found scores hard to come bye as the visitors defence closed them down time and again forcing turn overs and launching slick counter attacks.

Jamie McCann got the Kickham’s off the marks with an excellent point and they moved ahead on eight minutes when McCann converted a free.

The South West side missed a few chances to add to their tally before they struck for their first goal.

Tiarnan McAteer and Coey combined to set the latter through on goal, but Chris Kerr parried his shot however, Burke was on hand to pounce on the loose ball and force it over the line on 13 minutes.

St Gall’s suffered another blow when Eoghan McCabe was forced off the pitch with a hamstring injury and a brace of marks followed by points from the impressive Ruairi McCann stretched his side’s lead to 1-4 to 0-1.

St. Gall’s replied with two superb points from play via Aodhan Gallagher and McCaffrey, but it proved to be their final scores of the opening 30 minutes as they kicked a handful of wides late in the half.

Creggan closed the half with an excellent point from midfielder Kevin Small as his side went into the half-time interval leading 1-5 to 0-3.

Whatever was said during the interval seemed to work for the Milltown side as they returned to the field a much more focused outfit as they rattled off four unanswered points to close the gap back to a single point after 38 minutes.

Caolan Chada got the ball rolling before Gallagher fired over from a mark.

Gallagher and Chada then linked up as McCaffrey got in for a great score and Kevin Niblock finally freed himself from the attention of Ricky Johnston to land a mark.

By the time Niblock fired over, Creggan were also down a man following Marty Johnston’s black card for a third-man challenge.

However, by the time the former Antrim ace was back on the pitch, Creggan had restored their five-point advantage thanks to some poor shooting from the home side.

St Gall’s had a hat-trick of chances to draw level, but missed them all before Ruairi McCann converted a free to put two points in the game.

Prior to the second water break, Creggan were awarded a penalty by referee Brendan Toland after Conor McCann was fouled and Riuairi McCann made no mistake from the penalty spot to put Creggan 2-6 to 0-7 ahead.

St Gall’s never really looked like mounting a comeback in the final quarter and McCann converted another free before substitute Sean Duffin landed a point from play for the Kickhams.

The hosts finished the game with 13 men as full-back John MCaffrey picked up a black card before follow defender Shane O’Hagan received his second booking minutes later.

Duffin added another fine score for Creggan while Matthew Rodgers also got his name on the scoresheet in stoppage time.

In between the final two scores for Creggan, St Gall’s defender Sean Kelly had kicked a stunning point at the other end for his side who must try and reset for their final group game against Gort na Móna and, potentially, another tilt at county champions Cargin.

ST GALL’S: C Kerr; T Ó Ciaran, J McCaffrey, S O’Hagan; M Donnelly, S Kelly (0-1), C Stinton; T Bunting, A Gallagher (0-2, 0-1m); E McCabe, T O’Neill, N Burns; M Pollock, K Niblock (0-1, 0-1m), B McCaffrey (0-3, 0-1f).

Subs: C Chada (0-1) for McCabe (15), B Bradley for Pollock (45), C Brady for Ó Ciaran (58), C McGirr for Burns (58).

CREGGAN: O Kerr; E Carey Small, R Johnston, E McAteer; A Maguire, M Johnston, J McCann (0-2, 0-1f); K Small (0-1), A McKeown; T McAteer, P Coey, F Burke, M Rodgers (1-1), R McCann (1-4, 0-2m, 0-2fs, 1-0 pen), O McLarnon.

Subs: K Rice for McAteer (38), C McCann for A Maguire (38), S Duffin (0-2) for Coey (50), S Maguire for E McAteer (52), T McCann for McLarnon (55).

REFEREE: B Toland (Lámh Dhearg).