ACFL Division 1
St. John’s 0-7 Creggan 2-15
Kickham’s Creggan join Cargin, Portglenone and St. Brigid’s on 16 points at the top of division 1 following a bizarre weekend of results that saw all three lose their unbeaten league records
On a great night for football up in Corrigan Park after our County hurlers got the job done earlier in the day it was down to league business for the Johnnies and their visitors from Creggan.
Both teams went into this one under strength because of County commitments but never the less served up an entertaining game between these old rivals.
Kickhams got away to the perfect start with Sean Duffin and Dominic McAteer hitting a point each in the 3rd and 5th minutes then in the 7th minute Duffin again burst through the heart of the St John’s defence to score a great goal.
Duffin added another point on 17 minutes and Jamie McCann followed with 2 more in the 20th and 22nd minute.
Conal Mc Glade finally opened St. John’s account with a point in the 25th minute but Creggan finished the half strongly with two more points from Conor Small and Ricky Johnston to leave the score at halftime, St John’s 0-01 to Kickhams 1-07.
With a lot of the hard work being done in the defence by Sam and Aiden Maguire it gave Creggan’s midfield and forwards the confidence to push on as the second half got underway again.
Kealan McCann and Jamie McCann added points in the first 2 minutes before Darren Bellew and Conor Mc Avoy replied for St John’s to bring their total for the evening to 0-3.
Exchanges were much more even at this stage of the contest as Dominic and Tiernan McAteer added to the Kickham’s total and once again the Johnnies came back with points from Conchúr Adams and Conal McGlade.
In a tit for tat 15 minutes spell Jamie McCann and Tiernan McAteer kept the scoreboard ticking over and once again the Johnnies found a response through Adrian Oliver.
The Whiterock Road men never really looked like overcoming the deficit as Andy McGowan hit their final point but Dominic McAteer replied with a brilliant goal in the 24th minute before sharing the final two points of the game with his brother Tiernan to conclude the scoring.
This win sees Creggan join Cargin, Portglenone and St. Brigid’s on 16 points but the Kickham’s have played a game more but will be well satisfied with their recent good run of results.
With half a dozen rounds still to play it looks like the race for the title will go right down to the wire with only two points separating first and sixth in the table.