Antrim Hurling League – Division 1

St John’s 0-20 Ballycran 3-15

Division 1 league leaders St John’s lost their unbeaten record at Corrigan Park on Sunday when they were beat by Ballycran side who were at full strength for the first time this season.

With Down’s interest in the Joe McDonagh Cup being ended by Laois the previous day the most of Ballycran county players turned out and though they struggled in the early stages, they got the goals they needed to turn the game around.

St John started strongly and 0-4 to 0-1 up after seven minutes, Stephen Tierney, Mick Dudley, Shea Shannon and Aidan McMahon grabbing the Johnnies scores, while Scott Nicholson was the Ballycran scorer. Lorcan Heenan put St John’s 0-5 to 0-1 clear but the Ards men were starting to find their range and two goal in a three minutes spell from Liam Savage and David Gilliland began to turn the game in their favour, and they pushed on to lead by 2-8 to 09 by half time.

A strong start to the second half by the home side, which brought three points from Shea Shannon and on from Aaron Bradley, saw the draw level within six minutes of the restart. However Ballycran responded well andtwo points from Phelim Savage and two from Scott Nicholson, were followed by a goal by Gilliland to hand them back a decisive advantage.

St John’s battled against the odds during the final quarter with Shea Shannon adding three more points to their tally and Mick Dudley two, but Ballycran had the damage done and further points from Nicholson(2) and Paul Sheehan gave them victory, their first one of the season.