Northern Switchgear Senior Football Championship – Group 2
Sunday 14th August
Report by Niall Kelly
St Mary’s Ahoghill 0-12 Roger Casements Portglenone 0-15
The introduction of Ciaran McKenna and Paddy Kelly in the last quarter swayed momentum back in favour of John McKeever’s troops in what was a frenetic and intensely fought derby encounter. Trailing by four at the break, a rejuvenated Ahoghill side put Portglenone to the sword in the second period and the ingenuity of James O’Connell provided the platform for the hosts to take the lead for the first time in the game on the 55th minute. However, an inspired ten minutes of football in which McKenna and Kelly were at the forefront of, extinguished the hopes and prayers of the sizable home crowd.
It was the Bannsiders who were the brighter in the first half and deservedly took the lead on the second minute when Ronan Kelly found his range expertly after marauding through the tightly packed Ahoghill rear-guard and splitting the posts from range. Ahoghill’s tactic of isolating James O’Connell in the full forward line and distributing the long ball in for him to feed off, paid dividends minutes later when he latched on to a searching pass from Neil O’Connell and fired over expertly.
The speed and ferocity of Portglenone’s attacks were causing problems for the hosts and the imperious Michael Hagan finished off yet another scintillating counter attack with a monster effort from distance. A beautiful curling effort from Aidan McAleese doubled the lead before Eamonn Brady responded clinically on the fifteenth minute after some intricate link up play with centre back Thomas McGlone.
The remainder of the half belonged to the visitors though, outgunning their opponents 0-05 to 0-02. The scores were shared throughout the team illustrating the variety of attacking threat Portglenone have in their arsenal. Dermot McAleese and Conall Delargy pointed either side of a James O’Connell free with Michael Hagan, Aidan McAleese and Oisin Doherty all increasing their personal tallies. Ronan Graham responded with a colossal effort from range for the St Mary’s men just before the short whistle to leave the score 0-04 to 0-08 in favour of Portglenone.
The dark clouds circled ominously over Clooney throughout the first period and predictably the heavens opened during the interval with many supporters retreating to their cars for shelter. The rain though seemed to galvanise the hosts and they emerged in the second half a more potent outfit, spearheaded by the ever-dangerous James O’Connell. The sea of loyal supporters with their brollies in hand were treated to a frantic and exhilarating thirty-five minutes of Championship football in what was a ding-dong battle for victory.
Ahoghill came storming out of the traps as Patrick Graham opened the second-half scoring assisted ably by some tenacious work from Eamonn Brady. PJ O’Connell then opened his account by putting his imprint on a slick and efficient counter-attack. Portglenone hit back through the trusty right boot of Conall Delargy but the hosts momentum was continuing to build and Ronan Graham was on hand yet again to fire over from range to cut the gap back to two points on the fortieth minute. What followed five minutes later was the score of the match and potentially of the Championship itself from Ahoghill’s sharpshooter James O’Connell. The host’s corner forward picked the ball up right on the side-line of the left flank and from a seemingly impossible angle, guided the ball over deftly to rapturous applause from the home faithful.
Matters were then levelled on forty-seven minutes when Daniel O’Neill stormed the defences of Portglenone. The half forward drove from midfield riding challenge after challenge and refused to relinquish the size five, before drilling the ball over the black spot to trigger another roar of adulation from the crowd. Portglenone seemed somewhat shell-shocked and were in desperate need for a score. Michael Hagan provided this to the relief of the visiting support as he pointed from a tight angle to give his side some respite.
The fiftieth minute proved to be perhaps the most pivotal. Another jinking run from James O’Connell caused panic in the Casements defence and in the pandemonium, he was brought down in the box with a penalty awarded. Cometh the hour, cometh a hero though for the visitors as shot-stopper Ryan O’Neill telegraphed Ronan Graham’s drilled effort with the Ahoghill centre-forward having to make do with a point when he tapped over the rebound. The hosts though finally took the lead when that man James O’Connell fired over once again with five minutes remaining and everything to play for.
More than ever though, Gaelic Games have become a squad game. Ciaran McKenna and Paddy Kelly epitomised this perfectly as their introductions to proceedings turned the tide in favour of the hosts. With ice in his veins, Paddy Kelly stepped up to despatch one of his trade-mark long-range frees off the deck before McKenna announced his arrival with an excellently taken point after powering through from deep.
McKenna then turned provider for Oisin Doherty as he pointed to raise Portglenone’s thirteenth white flag of the evening. Michael Hagan added to this with a superb score two minutes from the sixty and the visitors had wrestled control back when it mattered most.
Ahoghill though refused to go out without a whimper and bombarded the visitor’s defence. With time running out, they were deploying the long ball tactic in the hopes of grabbing a goal. Noel Crossey’s flighted effort from a free helped register another point but in truth the goalkeeper perhaps caught it too sweetly as he cut a forlorn figure with his score, as he’d hoped to dangle the ball tantalisingly into the square instead. Paddy Kelly though would have the final say as he sent over another perfectly executed effort off the carpet from range to spark delirious celebrations from the visiting support and side-line alike.
This victory solidifies Portglenone’s place in the quarter finals. They were made to work for the win but with two exceptionally competitive and gruelling games under their belts, it will stand them in good stead for what’s to come. Ahoghill can certainly hold their heads high in defeat. They played their part in this game and could’ve possibly won it themselves after O’Connell gave them a short-lived lead. You can’t help think how damaging their defeat to Moneyglass possibly was in the first round of fixtures.
Teams:
Ahoghill:
N Crossey (0-01;) J Magee, M Graham, B Graham; E Graham, T McGlone, E Brady (0-01;) N O’Connell, P Graham (0-01,) Fionnbar O’Neill, R Graham (0-03,) D O’Neill (0-01;) J O’Connell (0-04,) M O’Connell, PJ O’Conell (0-01)
Portglenone:
R O’Neill; K O’Kane, J Convery, R Delargy; S Delargy, D McAleese (0-01,) R Convery; N Delargy, N McKeever; R Hagan, M Hagan (0-04,) R Kelly (0-01;) A McAleese (0-02,) C Delargy (0-02,) O Doherty (0-02)
Substitute scorers: C McKenna (0-01) P Kelly (0-02)
