Goals the difference as Glenavy beat St Patricks in U21 football championship opener

Under-21 B Football Championship at the Cricky

Glenavy 5-08 St Patrick’s Lisburn 0-09

Glenavy beat neighbours St Patrick’s Lisburn in the opening round of the Antrim Under 21 Football Championship at the Cricky, Belfast.

Glenavy opened the scoring in the first minute with a point from a free by Damien Mulholland but Lisburn responded at the six-minute mark with a great individual point from play by Conor Ward. Glenavy quickly regained the momentum a minute later when Darragh de Brun finished a well-worked team move by finding the back of the net for the game’s first goal. Damien Mulholland added another point from a free on 11 minutes and soon afterwards, Rowan Lavery scored a fantastic individual point, securing the ball in his own half before soloing the entire length of the pitch before firing over.

Despite Glenavy’s territorial advantage Lisburn’s defence held strong and on 16 minutes Frazer Rogan made a brilliant block to save a certain goal, before Jude Rafferty followed up with a point from play for the Lisburn side, However, Glenavy capitalised on a mistake in the Lisburn defence on 23 minutes, allowing Damien Mulholland to score their second goal. Jude Rafferty answered with a point from a free for Lisburn on 26 minutes, and moments later, the Glenavy goalkeeper produced a brilliant point-blank save to deny Rafferty a goal.

***Damian Mulholland (13) fires in a Glenavy goal***

There was little between the teams despite Glenavy’s dominance, but the men from Chapel Hill closed out the half dominantly with two brilliant team goals, the first finished by Christopher McGarry on 28 minutes, and the second driven into the net by Eoin Nelson in injury time to give their side a 4-02 to 0-06 half time lead.

Despite the scoreline, general play remained highly competitive, Glenavy’s superior ability to break through and find the net proving to be the primary difference. The Glenavy goalkeeper continued his fine form early in the half with another point-blank save from a shot from Lisburn’s Jude Rafferty and Glenavy then extended their lead with a point from the right side by Damien Mulholland.

Lisburn made their first change, bringing on Charlie Dooley McLaughlin for Aidan Kerr, and Jude Rafferty added another point from a free to closed the gap. However he game’s dynamic shifted significantly when Lisburn suffered two sendings off in quick succession which left them with a mountain to climb.

Johnnie Christy scored a point from play for Glenavy, though Jude Rafferty kept Lisburn’s tally ticking with two more points from frees. Further substitutions saw Colin McKernan replace Johnnie Christy for Glenavy, and Daire Austin enter the game for Lisburn.

Glenavy finished the game strongly. Ruairi Hamill scored a point from play, and Eoin Nelson added two more points, one from a 45 and one from play. Following a final Lisburn substitution that saw Jack Murray replace Joshua Wilson, Eoin Nelson pointed an additional free following a foul. Branan Loughran capped off the victory by scoring Glenavy’s fifth and final goal.

Overall the sendings-off were a major turning point in the match, but having said that Glenavy were the better side and fully deserved their win. While the game was very competitive in general play, Glenavy’s ruthless goal-scoring efficiency was the deciding factor. However, to progress further in this competition, the team will need to brush up on their shooting, which was notably poor during certain stages of the match.