Senior Football Championship – Round 2

Creggan 0-08 St Brigid’s 1-11

St Brigid’s made it two wins out of two in the Antrim Senior Football Championship round-robin when they travelled to Creggan on Saturday and beat the Kickham’s by six points to all but seal their place in the quarter finals. Although there are still a few permutations that can unfold on the final weekend of games a draw in their final match against Aghgallon would be enough to see the south Belfast side top the group.

It all appeared to be plain sailing for the Musgrave Park men at half time of Saturday’s game when they led by 0-8 to 0-01, but when Creggan came out in the second half and hit the first four points of the second half the complexion of the game changed. With the fresh breeze at their backs the home side looked like they could turn things around. However St Brigid’s steadied the ship and after surviving an almighty scare when the home team’s Tiernan McAteer took advantage of a bad defence error and broke towards goal. With goalkeeper Declan Heery struggling to get back McAteer went for goal from just outside the D, but the corner forward’s shot bounced on the edge of the ‘square’ and rebounded off the crossbar and the visitors got back to clear the danger.

Five minutes later the decisive score of the game came when St Brigid’s centre-back Shea Downey soloed through from midfield, breaking through three tackles on the way, to set up corner forward Rory McErlean for the only goal of the game.

The visitors dominated the opening half though it took them eight minutes to register their first score, a point from left half forward James Smith, the scores began to flow more freely after that. With Creggan defending deep St Brigid’s were patient in their approaches but the scores began to come and they moved 0-5 to 0-00 ahead after twenty minutes as Ronan Boyle, Rory McErlean, Shay Campbell and Jack Dowling all sent over points.

Creggan’s only score of the opening half came on 21 minutes when Tiernan McAteer swung one over from the right corner, but St Brigid’s held the upper hand for the remainder of the half and full-back Joseph Finnegan, full forward Conor McAleer and corner forward Rory McErlean (from a free) all hit the target to give their team a seven point cushion at the break.

When the teams re-emrged for the second half the significance of the fresh breeze soon became apparent as Creggan dominated the first ten minutes of play. McAteer fired over inside the first minute, Jamie McCann added one from a free and Ehan Carey-Small cut in from the left corner to send one over. On 38 minutes the gap was down to just three when Sean Duffin sent over from close range and suddenly things looked much different.

St Brigid’s needed a score to settle the nerves and it came two minute later when Conan McNicholl hit a very score from the right corner and when substitute Enda Downey added another to stretch the gap back to five. When Tiernan McAteer broke through for what looked like a certain goal the Creggan fans must have thought they were back in the game, but lady luck was not on McAteer’s side and his shot rebounded off the crossbar and was cleared.

The visitors were still under pressure though and it wasn’t until Shea Downey’s brilliant run and McErlean’s goal that the travelling fans could relax, knowing the game was one.

FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

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