Reserve Football Shield
St. Enda’s 1-10 St. Joseph’s 0-14
St. Joseph’s Glenavy came out on top in a well contested Reserve Football Shield meeting with St. Enda’s at Hightown on Wednesday night.
Playing with a slight wind advantage in the opening half St. Joseph’s built up a 0-8 top 0-4 lead thanks to two 2pointers from Finn Shannon and another from Darragh Armstrong.
After the break the home side came back strongly and a Ruairi Doran goal in the 30th minute closed the gap to two with Thomas Gilmore’s injury time point coming too late to send the game into extra time.
Glenavy got off to a bad start when they lost Shea O’Neill after four minutes to a knee injury and it was Odhran McKenna who gave the Hightown side the lead with a point in the 8th minute.
A Darragh Armstrong 2 pointer edged the visitors ahead and mid-fielder Niall McLaughlin followed with another to move his side 2 ahead after a low scoring 18 minutes.
Jude Stewart closed the gap to one before Finn Shannon restored the St. Joseph’s 2 point lead from a 20th minute free.
There was little between the sides at this stage but it was the Chapel Hill side who finished the half on the offensive and Finn Shannon struck a fine 2 pointer from distance and added a second double of the ground to leave his side leading by double scores at the break.
Half Time 0-4 TO 0-8
The home side responded positively at the start of the second half despite facing a slight breeze and Thomas Gilmore raised an Orange flag after a fine conversion off the carpet in the opening minutes.
Sean Neilan followed with a point from play and an Odhran McKenna pointed free and another point from Ryan Kelly saw St. Enda’s hit the front by the 8th minute and the Chapel Hill side looked in trouble.
In a game of changing fortunes, Niall McLaughlin squared the contest once more with Glenavy’s first score of the half in the 12th minute and it seemed to awaken the men in Orange from their slumber.
Finn Shannon edged them ahead once more from a free and Fergal Henry and Ruairi Forester extended that lead before Shannon moved them five in front from a breakaway that started deep in defence.
St. Joseph’s looked home and hosed as the clock ticked down but St. Enda’s were not finished and they put an excellent move together with Ruairi Doran finally finding a way past the excellent Gareth Collins and the deficit was down to two.
As the game edged into time added on St. Joseph’s had an opportunity to put matters to bed but this time it was St. Enda’s keeper, Nathan Kerr who came to his side’s rescue.
Thomas Gilmore responded with the game’s final point in the 33d minute for the home side to leave just one in it but that was as close as they would get with Paul McNally’s final whistle sounding to bring matters to a close.
OTHER SHIELD RESULTS
Glenavy now join Dunloy, Gort na Mona and Naomh Padraig in the semi-final draw.
The Cuchullian’s looked strong as they swept aside the challenge of St. Brigid’s third string, 3-20 to 2-7 while in the other ties Gort na Mona defeated Davitt’s 2-19 to 0-12 and Naomh Padraig recorded a narrow 3-11 to 1-15 win over Sarsfields at Kirkwood Park
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