ACFL Division 1
St. John’s 2-14 Moneyglass 2-12
Division 1 new boys, St. Ergnat’s Moneyglass travelled to Corrigan Park on Wednesday night and continued to produce the football that has seen them establish themselves in the higher grade but were beaten in the end by a strong St. John’s side who themselves have made a good start to the present league campaign.
With time almost up St. Ergnat’s looked to have earned their third win of the season when they led by two points, but two points is always a dangerous lead and St. John’s struck with a late goal from Locky McCurdy and an injury time point from Conor Adams to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
It was visitors St. Ergnat’s who made the best start and Colum Duffin and Conor Boyd and Connlaodh McCann shot them into an early 0-3 to 0-1 lead, the St. John’s point coming from Conal Gough, as the visitors enjoyed much the better of the opening exchanges.
The home side settled however and reeled off three points on the bounce through Conal McGlade, Darragh McGuinness and Conor Adams to move one ahead but St. Ergnat’s responded through the excellent Colum Duffin to level matters again.
Colm Duffin from a 19th minute free and Conor Hand from play exchanged further points but
the South West side had come close to finding the net on a couple of occasions and that goal duely arrived as the impressive Aidan McErlain fired home to move his side 1-05 to 0-5 ahead.
St Johns refused to go away and scored three points in the run up to half time with Conal McGlade pointing two frees and the other coming from Sean Wilson with Fergal Duffin replying for the visitors to leave just one between the sides at the half way stage.
Conor Hand fired over for the Whiterock men to level matters once more on the restart and a couple from Conor Adams had the home side with the superb Colum Duffin getting two for the visitors to leave matters tied again with five minutes of the new half gone.
Duffin and Adams exchanged further points and the game was turning into something of a shootout between the Moneyglass number 8 and his umber 14 counterpart but it was Adams who struck a vital blow for the Corrigan men with their opening goal in the 41st minute.
Further exchanges from Colum Duffin and Adams kept the contest final balanced going into the final quarter with Tiernan McCormick and Sean Boyd adding further points for the Marian Hill side and Conal McGlade adding to the St. John’s total and it still looked like anyone’s game.
Conall Prenter looked to have swung matters decisively in favour of the Moneyglass side when he fired home his side’s second goal with 13 minutes remaining and with time almost up the points looked to be heading in favour of the visitors as they led by two points.
St. John’s refused to panic however and in a late sustained period of pressure Locky McCurdy fired home their second goal and Adams added a late point to give his side victory by two points to break the hearts of the battling St. Ergnat’s who will feel they deserved something from this excellent contest.
St. Johns Squad: 1 Padraig Nugent 2 Ciaran Garland 3 Ciaran Johnston4 Jack Bohill 5 Luke Peden 6 Adrian Oliver 7 Darragh McGuinness 8 Simon McDonagh 9 Conor Hand 10 Ryan McNulty 11 Conal Gough12 Sean Wilson 13 Conal McGlade 14 Conor Adams 15 Conal Quinn 16 Stephen McGuinness 17 Pearce Donnelly 18 Darragh McCallian 19 Odhran Carleton 20 Rónán Quinn 21 Josh Robb 22 Lorcan Heenan 23 Locky McCurdy 24 Conan McKinney 25 Matthew Mallon 26 Michael Darragh 27 Conor Dyson
Moneyglass: 1 Gary Murray 2 Callum Mcstocker 3 Fergal Duffin 4 James McCormack
5 Tiernan McCormick 6 Peter McCormack 7 Paul Duffin 8 Colum Duffin 9 Dermot McErlain 10 Kevin McCann 11 conor Boyd 12 Connladh McCann 13 Jack McCoy
14 Sheanachan Duffin 15 Aidan Mcerlain
Subs
Sean Boyd for Paul Duffin (blood)
Sean Boyd for Kevin McCann
Conaill Prenter for Jack Mcoy