ACFL Div.1

St Galls 2 – 05  v 2 – 08 Roger Casements

The Bog Meadows was in pristine condition as St Galls hosted Portglenone in the opening round of this division one league encounter. Paddy Mc Shane is the man at the helm this season at St Galls and has put his charges through a good pre season that included four challenge games, and that was evident as his young team threw off the shackles and went at this contest from referee Brendan Toland’s first whistle.

The victors are a bit further on in their journey than their illustrious hosts who are very much in transitional mode, but the youthful side will provide a good test for anyone with their pace and hunger as they stuck to their task for the full hour.

The feature of the first half was some well taken points from distance by the visitors Ronan Kelly and Aidan McAleese, but this early advantage was cancelled out with a St Galls goal from hard working Brendan Bradley, as the tie ebbed and flowed evenly until half time when both sides went in level at the break.

With Niall Burns, Niall O Neill and Brendan Bradley calling the shots and keeping the scoreboard ticking over for the hosts St Galls were always well in this contest. With Niall Delargy and Ryan Convery directing affairs a superb point by Casements Conall Delargy was followed by long range scores from Ronan Kelly, Aidan McAleese and the impressive Michael Hagan, but these were cancelled out with white flags from Niall Fallon and a goal from Niall O’Neill to keep the minimum between the teams.

The deciding move that settled the contest was an excellent catch and delivery from Casements midfielder Stephen Kelly who released Michael Hagan in space. Hagan picked out the on running Ciaran McKenna who had one thing on his mind and McKenna fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the St Galls net to put just about enough daylight between the sides which allowed Portglenone to run out three point winners on the day.