Antrim Hurling League – Division 1
Naomh Eoin 2-21 Rossa 3-19
Pics by Bert Trowlen
St John’s and Rossa served up a real thriller at Corrigan Park on Wednesday evening with Rossa edging a high scoring game to move above their West Belfast rivals in the league race. The old adage that goals win games proved true in this case with Deaglan Murphy getting two for the Shaw’s Road side and Eoin Trainor one to give them the edge. The visitors were actually five points up going into injury time but the Johnnies hit late scores, a Michael Bradley point and a goal by Ruairi Galbraith, to leave just a point in it at the end.
Daire Murphy got the first score of the game for Rossa as he fired over but St John’s came back strongly with points from Conor Johnston, Michael Dudley, Donal Carson and Danann McKeogh to move three clear. Deaglan Murphy pointed a free to get Rossa going again but Aaron Bradly came back with a beauty for the Corrigan Park men and Oisin McManus hit back with a quick double.
The first goal of the game came from Aaron Bradley whose shot was fumbled by the Rossa goalkeeper and ended in the net on 14 minutes to move them ahead and Donal Carson added another for the home side to move them two clear by the 21st minute. Johnston and McManus added points, but the pendulum swung again in the visitors’ favour when Deaghlan Murphy fired a ground shot to the net, However
HALF-TIME: St John’s 1-11 Rossa 1-09
The second half started at a similar pace to which the first had ended and Dominic McEnhill cut the visitors’ deficit to one with a well taken point, but the gap was soon back at two when McManus fired over the home side. Rossa were soon level again though as Liam McEnhill and Daire Murphy sent over points and and an exchange of scores between St John’s Aaron Bradley and Rossa’s Eoin Trainor kept it that way.
Conor Johnston pointed for the home side on 45 minutes and Ryan McNulty added a beauty from play soon afterwards put his team three clear, but a real beauty from out on the wing by Tiernan Murphy kept Rossa within two but after and exchange of points between Deaghlan Murphy and Donal Carson but with eitht minutes of normal time still to play Rossa hit the front again when Eoin Trainor found the St John’s net.
The tension was at fever pitch as the teams exchanged scores, but with just two minutes left to play a great run by Dominic McEnhill set up Murphy for his team’s third goal to move them five clear. St John’s came back with a Shea Shannon point to cut the gap to four but it was out to five again a minute later when Murphy fired over. It appeared to be all over bar the shouting but Braldey cut the gap back to four before Ruairi Galbraith fired a shot to the Rossa net to leave just a point between the side. However St John’s never got the chance of adding the equaliser they needed as he final whistle sounded to end a remarkable game of hurling.
ST JOHN’S
D Nugent, R Donelly, J Bohill, D McGuinness, C Morgan, R McNulty, E McGurk, M Dudley, C Hanna, C Johnston, A Bradley, D Carson, S Wilson, D McKeogh, S Shannon, O McManus,
ROSSA D Armstrong, O McVicker, J Mulholland, N Crossan, D McCartney, A O’Brien, S Shannon, C Walsh, D Murphy, D Murphy, D McEnhill, L McEnhill, E Trainor, J Connolly, T
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