McCallin goal swings it Johnnies’ way

ACHL Division 1

St. John’s 1-14 Ballycran 0-13

St. John’s followed up their Wednesday night victory over Rossa at Shaw’s Road with another win today over Ballycran at Corrigan Park. In the proverbial game of two halves it was the men from the Ards peninsula who edged the opening half and led 0-10 to 0-6 at the interval but a goal from Peter McCallin early in the second half swung it the Johnnies way.

Phelim Savage was outstanding over the hour for the Down side and he opened the scoring with a point early in the game with David Gilliland adding another to move the visitors two ahead. Peter McCallin and Shea Shannon replied for the Corrigan men as play began to open up and there was nothing between the sides at this stage.

It was Ballycran who began to gain the upper hand with Phelim Savage, Cormac McAlister, Niall Breen and Brett Nicholson all finding their range as they moved 0-10 to 0-6 ahead by the half way mark with Shea Shannon, Aaron Bradley and Ruairi Galbraith keeping St. John’s within touching distance as the sides changed ends.

**The clash of the ash as St John’s Padraig Nugent and Ballycran’s Patrick Hughes pull on a dropping ball**

St. John’s upped the pace considerably at the start of the second half and a Peter McCallin goal levelled matters after five minutes as the Corrigan men started to dominate. Points from Shea Shannon, Shane Dunne, Oisin Donnelly, Peter McCallin and Shannon again had them looking comfortable going into the closing stages before the visitors staged a revival.

Led by the excellent Phelim Savage the Ards men hit three unanswered points through Savage 0-2 and Scott Nicholson to close the gap to a goal and it still looked anybody’s game but a great long range effort from St. John’s main man, Shea Shannon proved the insurance point and the final score of the game as the home side ran out winners by four points.

**Ballycran’s Phelin Savage holds off the challenge of St John’s Michael Dudley**

St. John’s: 1 Declan Cregan, 2 Odhran Carleton, 3 Jack Bohill, 4 Shane Dunne, 5 Oisin Donnelly, 6 Padraig Nugent, 7 Ciaran McKenna, 8 Shea Shannon, 9 Aaron Bradley, 10 Michael Dudley, 11 Peter McCallin, 12 Ruairi Galbraith, 13 Luke Loughlin, 14 Conor Hand, 15 Stefan Hughes, 16 Simon Doherty,

Ballycran : 1 Declan Ennis, 2 John McNamara, 3 Sean Ennis, 4 Brad Watson, 5 Rory Brown, 6 Brett Nicholson, 7 Aaron Dorrian, 8 Scott Nicholson, 9 Phelim Savage, 10 Cormac McAlister, 11 Patyrick Hughes, 12 Daniel Hughes, 13 Philip Miskimmin, 14 Niall Breen, 19 Adam Rogan, 20 David Gilliland, 21 Jack Lennon, 25 Sean Gilliland, 27 Darragh Kelly