ACFL Division 1
All Saints 3-21 Glenravel 2-14
All Saints kept their league title chances alive with a comprehensive victory over rivals Glenravel in sun drenched Quinn Park on Saturday evening.
Smarting from a surprise defeat mid-week to lowly Rossa, All Saints wanted to get back into winning ways and indeed the gap between the teams was larger than the score-line suggests.
The timeless Sean McVeigh got All Saints off the mark after six minutes with a 2-pointer and whilst Ryan McQuillan pulled one back for Glenravel All Saints went on a scoring spree adding six more points from Conor Stewart, Ciaran Campbell, McVeigh again, Brendan McDonnell and two from Paidin Mitchell.
Glenravel’s only reply was an Eamon Fyfe free so with one quarter gone Glenravel trailed by six points but they redeemed themselves with 2-pointers from Eamon Fyfe and Ryan McQuillan and a single point from Fyfe closing the gap to two points after Brendan McDonnell pointed a free to leave the score 0-09 to 0-07 in the home side’s favour.
In truth Ballymena had squandered several goal chances in the opening period and may have started to rue them but in the closing four minutes of the half they recorded 1-03 as Conall Lemon, Kavan Keenan and James McDonnell all got on the score-sheet with points and finally Shaun O’Callaghan goaled with the final kick of the first half to leave Ballymena in a commanding lead 1-12 to 0-08.
All Saints brought on Patrick McAleer in the second half and he signalled his intentions for a starting berth next time out with a well taken point in the opening minute. Sean McKay pulled one back but the game was essentially ended as a contest when Ciaran Campbell found the net two minutes into the half and that was followed up by a brace from Conor Stewart to put Ballymena firmly in the driving seat leading g by 2-15 to 1-09.
Ryan McQuillan did convert some nice scores including an injury time goal but it was all too late and when full back Kavan Keenan netted with twenty minutes left the game was well and truly put to bed as a contest. Both teams exchanged points in the closing quarter but Ballymena were never really troubled. Game ended 3-21 to 2-14 to All Saints.
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