Casement Social Club Junior Hurling Championship – Group 2
St Brigid’s 1-8 All Saints 4-19
Last year’s Devenish All Stars top scorer Ciaran Neeson gave another exhibition of score taking as All Saints travelled to Musgrave Park on Saturday afternoon and beat St Brigid’s convincingly in the first round-robin game of the competition. The Ballymena man was in top form as he hit scores from all angles and distances against last year’s Junior B champions, who found the going tough at the higher level.
Neeson got the first point of the game in the opening minute bfore cutting through the St Brigid’s defence soon afterwards and surprisingly firing wide, with the goal at his mercy. However he made up for his rare mistake on seven minutes when he picked up a long ball from centre back Luke O’Rawe before finishing superbly to the net.
St Brigid’s top score Fintan Cleary got his team on the scoreboard a minute later and the full forward appeared to get a hurl to a lobbed shot by David Prenter soon afterwards to flick to the All Saints net, and suddenly it was all square. However the Ballymena men soon regained control and a series of points by Neeson, a goal from a penalty from the same player, plus well taken point from Liam Cassley had them 2-9 to 1-3 ahead at half time, despite playing into a fresh breeze.
James O’Boyle increased the All Saints lead early in the second half and Neeson added one from a free before Liam Cassley cut in along the endline and finished to the net from a narrow angle for his team’s third goal. Cleary (2) and Eoghan McMainnin came back with points for St Brigid’s, but James O’Boyle grabbed goal number four for Ballymena to stretch their lead even further.
Neeson hit a few more quality points, one in particular from inside his own 45 meter line a real stand out score, and to their credit St Brigid’s kept battling away as Cleary, Owen McCarney and Oisin McDonnell got on the scoreboard, but All Saints were home and hosed from a long way out and their outing against Cloughmills in two weeks’ time should be a very interesting contest.
One St Brigid’s player who really caught the eye in the game was goalkeeper Brian McGurk. To be honest he didn’t really have much chance with the goals that beat him, but his catching under the high ball, and his poc-outs, were superb.
