Antrim GAA Bathshack SHC St. John’s v O’Donovan Rossa 7th Sept 2024
Match report from Michael Corcoran and photos from Bert Trowlen at Corrigan Park
St. John’s 1-27 O’Donovan Rossa 2-16
The last of the group 2 games will see quarter final places shaping up and as seen by many, as the business end of the championship as we go into knockout. But today’s game in Corrigan Park had its own knockout appeal. The winner would transition out from the dubbed ‘Group of Death’ into another form of death. From the frying pan to the fire so to speak. But that’s how it should be in championship hurling. As you progress, things should become more challenging.
As a past Bainisteoir of Portaferry and the Down GAA U20B All Ireland squad, Sean Young, said in conversation ahead of last year’s Ulster final, “this is what we train for, for days like this.” And for St. John’s and Rossa, this is one of those days. A win today keeps you in the running and then it’s one game at a time.
This afternoon’s game delivered everything you’d want from a knockout scenario. Three goals and a respectable haul of forty-three points between the sides and no cards, gave spectators sixty odd minutes of intense hurling.
After a short pit stop to change the Officials’ jerseys in order to avoid a clash with Rossa colours, Mark O’Neill centred the tussling mid field formation for the throw-in and relieved the tension as the sliotar rolled in on almost the hour. As the sliotar came back out heading towards St. John’s end at the clubhouse, St. John’s Michial Dudley went to ground within the first ten seconds and Shea Shannon would drift that free wide of the uprights. Rossa would have their opportunity to register a score as Stephen Beatty delivered into Thomas Morgan but the sliotar rebounded off the upright and it would be two minutes on the clock before Rossa’s Seaghan Shannon would point a free.
Rossa supporters wouldn’t have to wait as long for the next score as two minutes later, Thomas Morgan looked up and spotted Pearce Short running towards St. John’s goal. Short managed to get a hand on the delivery and hammered the sliotar past keeper Simon Doherty for the game’s first goal of the evening.
St. John’s would reply quickly from their puckout as Conor Johnston pointed to get the Johnnies on the scoreboard, however Rossa came straight back, as Eoin Trainor intercepted a loose ball into his hand and wasted no time in delivering over the bar.
St. John’s though were eager to press into Rossa’s firing zone but bailed out as a wall of yellow jerseys closed in. It would fall to Dominic McEnhill to rescue a point from that and a wonderful sideline cut from around 40m out would bring the Johnnies right back into the game with scores St. John’s 0-03 Rossa 1-02.
With seven minutes gone on the clock, McEnhill pushed forward whenever referee O’Neill declared a foul that swept McEnhill off his feet. Forty-five metres out, Seaghan Shannon stroked that safely over the bar before the game entered a short phase of point for point as both sides ran up three apiece but Rossa could have made it two goals as Eoin Trainor fired in the sliotar to meet the ash of St. John’s keeper, Simon Doherty with ten minutes elapsed on the clock.
Rossa’s marksman, Seaghan Shannon, would cruise another free over the bar before Rossa built up a tidy sequence as Declan McCartney found Dominc McEnhill and onto a calling Stephen Beatty. Beatty would spill that wide of the mark but it announced intent from the Shaw’s road squad that they weren’t prepared to only take the points.
Thirteen minutes gone and Rossa’s Declan McCartney clipped Oisin Donnelly’s helmet under the watchful eye of O’Neill, with St. John’s Shea Shannon dropping that free over the bar. It brought the Johnnies tight behind the visitors by one point but Rossa were on the goal hunt again when Beatty dropped in a dangerous sliotar to a waiting Thomas Morgan and it would take defender Jack Bohill to diffuse the attack, rushing the sliotar out to safety and onwards to Michial Dudley, who fired it over Donal Armstrong’s crossbar.
St. John’s Conal Bohill inched the Johnnies another point ahead and for the first time in the game, St. John’s took the lead. Spurred on by the momentum, Oisin Donnelly delivered into Stephen Tierney and the supporters up in the stand roared as the net rippled from his goal.
Rossa’s midfielder Eoin Trainor pulled one back for Rossa as he played the advantage on a foul gathered from a puck out and St. John’s midfielder, Michial Dudley, wasn’t going to be denied some spotlight as he pointed from a pass, delivered in from a seriously under pressure Conor Johnston.
Sensing the Johnnies were drifting ahead, Rossa found more energy and ran up four points on the trot, three from Seaghan Shannon and a sweet turnover of a St. John’s puck out by Stephen Beatty, finding Thomas Morgan.
With twenty six minutes gone in the first half, St. John’s Shea Shannon would inch them ahead by a point from a free from the half way line on the stand side. Rossa had a chance to draw again but an earned free from a foul on Gerald Walsh went wide of the post and it would be St. John’s that would point from Ryan McNulty’s huge air mail effort from a turned over puck out that would bring the first half to closure and scores standing St. John’s 1-12 Rossa 1-10.
With only the two points in the game at the short whistle, there wasn’t much to differentiate the sides, both having equal goal opportunities, frees and wides. It would be a question of who had the energy to keep applying the pressure over the remaining thirty minutes on a perfect evening for hurling.
No sooner had O’Neill rolled in the sliotar to commence the second half, when Rossa’s Declan McCartney won that sliotar and went to ground. Gerard Walsh would drift that wide before St. John’s Shea Shannon made the most of a foul on Oisin Donnelly to stretch his team’s lead to three.
With around four minutes gone in the second half, drama would unfold in the Rossa box as Conor Johnston was fouled. O’Neill wasted no time in declaring a penalty and Shea Shannon stepped up to drill the sliotar down the line to a waiting Donal Armstrong. Armstrong read the line well and managed to get his stick onto the sliotar as the full back line ran in to aid getting the sliotar away to safety.
Rossa would have to bide their time before they would have a chance in St. John’s box, in the meantime, Rossa’s Michael Armstrong would pick up a foul from a stick around his neck and Seaghan Shannon made that to close the gap to three and then the Johnnies went on a run of three points from Michial Dudley, Conor Johnston and Shea Shannon, when at eight minutes in the second half, Rossa were initially denied a goal as the sliotar clanged off the post but an alert Thomas Morgan pulled on the outcoming sliotar and Rossa had their second goal and quickly followed that with two almost identical points from a Christopher McGuinness – Dominic McEnhill combination squaring both sides level, St. John’s 1-16 Rossa 2-13.
On 43 minutes St. John’s got back on to as they posted a run of four points, the first came from a free by Shea Shannon as Conal Bohill was fouled on the way into Rossa’s danger zone. Then, three consecutive points from Conor Johnston, Donal Carson and Michial Dudley before Rossa’s Michael Armstrong replied with a fine catch and delivery over the bar from the puck out.
St. John’s Conor Johnston was alert and picked up a breaking ball and sent ove a point with just over nineteen minutes gone to stretch the home team’s lead, but Rossa hit back with a Gerard Wals from his own half, to cut the deficit to just three with just ten minutes of normal time left to play. St. John’s however would dominate the final ten minutes and one for injury ad produced really strong finsh to seal the win. Shea Shannon delivered three of those and a tight Shannon – Carson – Johnston combo set up the fourth before Conal Bohill would have the honour of closing St. John’s account as Mark O’Neill blew for full time, with the scoreboard showing St. John’s 1-27 Rossa 2-16.
St. John’s starting panel and scorers
Simon Doherty, Jack Bohill, Ciaran Johnston, Sean Wilson, Ryan McNulty 0-01, Peter McCallin, Conal Morgan, Andrew McGowan, Michial Dudley 0-04 (1f), Oisin Donnelly 0-01, Conor Johnston 0-05, Conal Bohill 0-02, Shea Shannon 0-11 (9f), Michael Bradley 0-01f, Aaron Bradley 0-01, Stephen Tierney 1-00, Donal Carson 0-01
O’Donovan Rossa’s starting panel and scorers
Donal Armstrong, Christopher McGuinness, Ciarán Orchin, Conor Boyle, Stephen Shannon, Gerard Walsh 0-01, Declan McCartney, Cónall Shannon, Eoin Trainor 0-02, Stephen Beatty, Michael Armstrong 0-01, Pearce Short 1-0, Dominic McEnhill 0-03, Seaghan Shannon 0-08 (7f), Thomas Morgan 1-01
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FOR MORE BERT TROWLEN PICS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
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