Antrim Football Division One 

O’Donovan Rossa 1-7 Naomh Éanna 0-6

Rossa started their football league campaign with a four point win over a spirited St Enda’s team. St Enda’s were unable to field their two county stars Odhran Eastwood and Peter Healy who are needed for Antrim’s promotion push to Division 2, but that didn’t stop the Glengormley men from putting together a tremendous hours football in this low scoring but highly entertaining game .  

Rossa got off to the better start and they held the upper hand for much of the opening half. The superb Dominic McEnhill and the speedy Tomas Morgan caused all   sorts of problems to the St Enda’s defence and with the soft underfoot conditions the faster Shaw’s Road men managed to cut through the St Enda’s defence a number of times.   Rossa led by four points entering the final stages of the opening half and things looked dire for St Enda’s when their midfielder and captain Niall McKeown was forced to retire.with a leg injury. However it was his replacement Fionn Nagel who lit up the match with two superb points, narrowing Rossa’s lead to only two points at the break and it looked at this stage that the Hightown Road men had weathered the storm and could push on in the second half.

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St Enda’s opened the second half in great style and Donal Walsh finished a fine move with a magnificent point Rossa’s workrate was immense especially in defence and they were always able to keep in front thanks to the great work of Christopher McGuinness, Patrick Moyes and Pierce Shortt and with points from Dominic McEnhill and Tomas Morgan  they managed to stretch their lead to three points. St Enda’s replied and  brought the game back to a one point game thanks to an excellent point from Kristian Healy and a free from their star forward  Fionn Nagel  with 28 minutes gone .

However when a draw looked the likely outcome Rossa put together their best play of the game Eoghan McMenamin claimed a mark in the middle of the field he found Dominic McEnhill who played a superb ball to the dynamic mid fielder Cormac McGettigan on the 13m line . McGettigan found the on -rushing Morgan with an excellent touch and the Rossa  dual star put the ball in the net and game out of reach for the north Belfast men .

In the end both camps will be happy after their first outing with St Enda’s confident once their county men return that they will build on this solid performance, and can build on   the fine  displays of Fionn Nagel ,Michael Morgan ,Donal Walsh and Conor Maxwell .  Rossa deserved the win, especially after a strong opening display although they would hope to take more of their chances as the season unfolds. However, they had strong displays from Domoinic McEnhill, Cormac McGettigan, Eoghan McMenamin Patrick Moyes, Matthew Mallon and their top scorer Tomas Morgan.

ROSSA: Mick Byrne, Ciaran Orchin, Stephen Shannon, Conor McGowan, Patrick Moyes, Chris McGuinness, Conall McDonald, Cormac McGettigan, Pierce Shortt, Dominic McEnhill,(0-4 )Tomas Morgan 1-2 Stephen Beatty, Matthew Mallon, Colm Fleming, Eoghan McMenanim.

Subs: Richie Gowdy for Conor McGowan (45 min) ,  Sean Pat Donnelly for Conall McDonald  (45 min) Adam Devlin for Pierce Shortt (50mins )

NAOMH ÉANNA: Michael O’ Boyle, Fiontan Eastwood, Michael McNamee, Niall Heatley, Conan Lyttle, Conor Maxwell, Ciaran Thompson, Niall McKeown, Michael Morgan, Gerard Crossey, Donal Walsh(0-2) Kristian Healy(0-1) Cormac Morgan, Owen Kennedy, Fionntann O’Connor.

Subs: Fionn Nagle (0-3) for Niall McKeown (27), James McAuley for Owen Kennedy (H/T),Ronan Kalla for Ciaran Thompson (37)

REFEREE: Cathal McDermott 

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REFEREE: Cathal McDermott