Antrim Football League – Division 2
St Pauls 0.8 – All Saints 2.13
All Saints travelled to Shaw’s Road knowing that they needed 2 points to keep up with the early pace setters in Division 2. Facing hitherto unbeaten St Paul’s was a tough task but to their credit the Ballymena side recorded a good win, something that for long periods of the opening half looked highly unlikely.
The result of the game hinged on two incidents on either side of half time, the first one a scrambled goal from substitute Ronan McKillop, which threw his side a lifeline, and other three minutes after the restart which saw St Paul’s top score Liam McKenna receive a red card. These two incidents turned the game on its head, and without the excellent McKenna the home team struggled.
In a low scoring first half it was McKenna who dominated proceedings as St Pauls, playing with the breeze, dominated the early exchanges, causing the All Saints defence a mountain of problems as St Paul’s dominated the midfield sector. The home side lead 0-5 to no score after 26 minutes as the Saints struggled in front of the posts, registering five wides.
All Saints first score came from a 26th minute free from James McDonnell followed by a further converted free a couple minutes later. St Paul’s came back with 2 further points, again from McKenna and O’Dufaigh, leaving the score 0.7 to 0.2 as half time approached.
All Saints manager ‘Baker’ Bradly made a number of tactical changes towards the end of the first half which provided the platform for their comeback.
This paid immediate dividends as a shot from substitute McKillop was scrambled to the net to narrow the gap to 2 points as the half time whistle neared.
Shortly after the re-start, St Pauls lost their main scoring threat, Mc Kenna to a straight red card. Down to 14 players and playing into a strong breeze, the Shaws Road men struggled to make any further impression on the score board registering only 1 point through O’Dufaigh in the 2nd half as All Saints defence exhibited some good defensive play transitioning quickly to launch attacks.
The man who lead the comeback was corner forward Benny McDonnell who gave an exhibition of point taking, plus setting up colleagues all around him.
The turnaround was remarkable as the Ballymena men, who looked at sixes and sevens in the first half, suddenly couldn’t miss and they clawed their way back, before hitting the front. The icing on the cake for the Saints came in injury time when corner-back James McDonnell, was found with a neat pass on the edge of the St Paul’s square and slotted the ball below the advancing St Paul’s goalkeeper Jack McAufield to give the final scorline a somewhat flattering look.
Despite the result, St Paul’s management will be satisfied with their start to season and will hope to get back on track in the midweek round of fixtures.
All Saints
1. Niall Shannon
2. Matthew Downey (sub: James Gillan 25 mins)
3. Cormac Lemon (sub: Reece O Mullin 55 mins)
4. James McDonnell (1.2F)
5. Ciaran McGarry
6. Joe Rafferty (0.1)
7. Shaun O Callaghan
8. Sean Mc Veigh
9. Ciaran McLarnon (sub Ronan McKillop 1.1 25 mins)
10. Shea O Brien
11. Emmet Killough
12. Cal O Brien
13. Brendan McDonnell (0.5)
14. Conal Lemon (0.2)
15. Owen Campbell (sub Conor Stewart (0.2) – 45 mins)
St Paul’s
1 – Jack McAufield
2 – Caoimhin Mac Giolla eaigh
3 – Aodhan Kavanagh
4 – Nichael Duffy
5 – Cormac O’Hanlon
6 – Don Burns
7 – Marcas Munce
8 – James Farrell
9 – Colm McLarnon
10 – Paul O’Hanlon
11 – Liam McLarnon
13 – Conal O’Dufaigh
14 – Liam McKenna
15 – Patrick Doyle
