ACFL Division 1
St. Mary’s Aghagallon 3-7 St. Enda’s 0-7
The Aghagallon project under the guidance of Pete McGrath continues to grow momentum and on Sunday they had too much guile and knowhow for a St. Enda’s side who were always chasing the contest.
Right from the time when Eunan Walsh fired home a 7th minute penalty for the home side it was looking ominous for the Glengormley side as Hugh Hannon had already opened with a point in the first minute.
St. Enda’s opened their account from a Fionn Nagle free in the 8th minute and Nagle was on target again following a Mark after Niall McShane replied to his opening score with a point for Aghagallon and the visitors were having to work very hard for their scores against a well organised home defence.
Their task became even more difficult when Caolan Farr ran onto a great over the top pass from Hugh Hannon to blast the ball to the net in the 17th minute and put St. Mary’s six ahead and Johnny Hannon added a point as the home side continued to dominate.
Tomas Gilmour relieved the pressure as he converted a ‘45’ for the visitors in the 23d minute and Niall McShane for Aghagallon and Ronan O’Neill, with a great long range point for the Hightown side concluded the first half scoring to leave it 2-4 to 0-4 at the break.
St. Enda’s needed a good start to the second half if they were to claw back the home side’s lead but it was Aghagallon who continued on the front foot with Marc McAfee and Niall McShane extending their lead with early points.
The home side continued to soak up anything that St. Enda’s could throw at them and were ready to break at speed when the opportunity arose and a bit of frustration began to creep into the visitors play with referee Cathal McDermott issuing a number of yellow cards.
Veteran mid-fielder, Phillip Curran pulled one back for the visitors but the Glengormley side were feeding on crumbs and Jack Lenehan replied with a great long range point to keep the gap at eight and it was hard to see a way back for the Hightown men.
To their credit they kept going to the end and Tomas Gilmour converted a free before Ronan Kella got his name on the score card with a good point but the final score of the game fell to Aghagallon substitute, Conor Magill who got in for a late goal to put the icing on a solid performance from the home side.
Aghagallon: 1 – Luke Mulholland 2 – Ciaran Maginnis 3 – Aidan Mulholland 4 – Pat Branagan 5 – Eunan Walsh 6 – Jaime Lamont 7 – Paudy Gowdy 8 – Jack Lenehan 9 – Caolan Farr 10 – Jonny Hannon 11 – Pauric Maginnis 12 – Marc McAfee 13 – Niall McShane 14 – Enda McCartan 15 – Hugh Hannon
St. Enda’s: 1 Michael O’Boyle, 2 Killian Jennings, 3 Colm McGrath, 4 Diarmuid McNulty, 5 Ronan O’Neill, 6 Conan Lyttle, 7 Owen Kennedy, 8 Phillip Curran, 9 Michael Morgan, 10 Ronan Kalla, 11 Tomas Gilmour, 12 Cormac Morgan, 13 Aaron Ibinson, 14 Fionn Nagle, 15 Callum Morgan
Referee: Cathal McDermott (Tir na nOg)
