Club News

28/06/02 Footballers' fail to take revenge on Milltown men in Championship

Unfortunately it was a poor evening of football from a St. John's point of view last Friday evening when the senior footballers took on St. Gall's in the quarter-final of the Championship, a repeat of last year's final.

Hopes and expectations were high going into the game, despite St. Gall's good form this year in the league and on paper it looked set to be a very close encounter and one which St. John's were very much capable of winning. However, games are not won on paper and the team which lined out against the current champions simply did not perform on the night.

The defence were always going to face stiff competition from the St. Gall's forward line and Ronan McHugh, who has been arguably the most consistent player in defence for the last number of years, never mind this season, found the going very hard against the strong St. Gall's full-forward. Likewise the half-back line, one of the best in the county, failed to dominate their players or deliver in to the forward line the kind of quality ball needed to launch successful attacks. Mickey O'Neill was the best of the defenders on the night, man-marking very effectively the dangerous Karl Stewart but, was substituted at half-time due to injury.

The midfield pairing of James Murphy and Niall Convery lost out to their St. Gall's counterparts in the vast majority of kickouts and to make matters worse the breaking ball seemed to be exclusively won by St. Gall's, which placed the already strained defence under increased pressure. Eamon Blaney looked perhaps the brightest of the St. John's forwards and gave the St. Gall's defence a few problems, whereas the rest seemed to be outplayed by what was, admittedly, an impressive St. Gall's defensive performance. The first half ended with St. Gall's infront 0-9 to 0-2.

The second half didn't see a St. John's revival and the pattern of play stayed much the same, despite the introduction of Stephen Miller who produced a couple of good catches in the middle of the park. The inability to take scores and to prevent St. Gall's from adding to the scoresheet was the telling factor here, though there was the briefest of moments for the St. John's supporters to cheer on when Anto Press scored a goal from his penalty kick. This did not signal a turning point in the match, instead it helped to take away from the poor look of the scoreboard, but not much. Instead of success, frustration was the order of the day for St. John's as they couldn't produce anywhere near their best form to mount a serious challenge to St. Gall's. In fact St. John's were fortunate to finish the match with 15 men after a bad tempered and petulent display in front of the referee by half-back Ciaran Anderson in the closing stages.

The match ended 1-4 to 0-14, St. Gall's scoring on almost 3 times as many occasions as the Whiterock Road men. The footballers who lined out in Casement Park on Friday evening were capable of winning a championship, but the good performance simply wasn't there. The team needed to play well throughout the park and to "click", but it just wasn't to be.

The chance to lay to rest the ghost of last year's championship final defeat must wait another year.

 

		St. John's
		B. Mulgrew
G. Clarke		R. McHugh	M. O'Neill
C. Anderson		K. McCabe	G. Adams
		J. Murphy N. Convery
A. Press		B. McFall	C.Kelly
E. McKenna		E. Blaney	G. Clarke
(Subs: L. McCurdy for N. Convery, S. Miller for M. O'Neill, D. Rafferty for R. McHugh, A. Morris for G. Clarke)