O’Neill’s Sportswear Antrim Football League Division One
O’Donovan Rossa 1-7 St Gall’s 1-12
St. Galls came strong in the second half to claim victory on the opening day of the Antrim ACFL Division 1 at Shaw’s Road on Sunday.
The visitors trailed by two at the break, but with the elements in their favour in the second half, they came back strongly to quickly turn the game in their favour.
A stiff breeze, which favoured Rossa in the opening half and some light rain made underfoot conditions difficult with players continuously losing their footing.
Both sides looked a bit rusty as this season’s league kicked into action
And it took a bit of time to settle into action and the first 10 minutes saw both sides looking to get off the mark but handling mistakes in possession saw neither troubling the scoreboard.
That changed after 10 minutes when Thomas Morgan sped in from the right to fist over and give the hosts the lead, while Sean Fleming used the wind advantage to thump over a free from deep.
Callum Walsh cut through to get the visitors on the board after 13 minutes and although St Gall’s threatened, the posts continued to prove an elusive target.
Rossa would hit the visitors on the break with Fleming sending a superb ball through to Morgan to score and he would add another to bring his personal tally to three as the home side enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges.
Aodhán Gallagher finally got the visitors off the mark with a point in the 12th minute judging the wind to perfection to curl over off his left boot and then stormed through for another.
Adam Devlin would have the final say of the half with a great point to put Rossa into a 0-5 to 0-3 lead at the interval but with the breeze to face in the second half.
Micky Pollock reduced the gap to one on the restart from a free and added another from play to level the contest. The same player added another as St. Gall’s began to take charge after Marcus Donnelly had scored to ensure a two-point advantage for the Milltown side.
A pointed free at the other end on 45 minutes was Rossa’s first of the second half, but St Gall’s came storming back with a goal as Michael Hopkins broke clear and played into substitute Conn Doherty who applied a precise finish.
Niall Fallon was then penalised as he appeared to claim a mark and he finished to the net but play was rightly brought back and he had to settle for a point.
Further scores from Gallagher, Barra McCaffrey and Fallon pushed the gap out to eight and it was game over.
Rossa responded late in the game with Patrick Moyes firing brilliantly to the corner of the net with Morgan kicking his fourth point soon after, but it was Aodhán Gallagher who capped a fine individual performance with his own fourth to seal a deserved a win for St Gall’s.
Rossa: N Crossan; M McKiernan, J Morris, C Orchin; P Moyes (1-0), A Devlin (0-1), R Grant; S Fleming (0-2f), D Rogan; M McEnhill, T Morgan (0-4), C O’Neill; C McDonald, R Maguire, R Currie
Subs: D Cunningham for R Currie (43), B McAuley for A Devlin (47), L Carr for C Orchin (54)
St. Gall’s: C Kerr; M Donnelly, G Mac Adhaimh, E McCurdy; C Murray, R Irvine, C McCabe; A Gallagher (0-4), J McCullough; D Quinn, C Walsh, M Hopkins; N Fallon (0-2, 1m), M Pollock (0-3, 2f), F Donnelly (0-1).
Subs: C Doherty (1-0) for C Walsh (HT), E McCabe for M Hopkins (41), B McCaffrey (0-1) for D Quinn (51), O McIlhatton for N Fallon (60+1).
Referee: Paddy Tumelty (Lámh Dhearg)
