Club News

21/07/02 Depleted footballers unravel Glenravel

With a huge number of first team regulars missing the footballers were expected to find the going tough against Glenravel who, whilst not one of the stronger teams in the league, had held them to a draw earlier in the season with an almost full strength team.

All of the county contingent were missing in addition to Brian McFall (on duty for the county hurlers), Conal Kelly, Locky McCurdy, Enda McKenna, Aidan Morris and Mickey O'Neill, however the players who stepped up to fill the void were not found wanting.

Perhaps most notable of these replacements was Division 2 captain and senior hurler Kevin Rafferty, just coming back from injury and who had played in the Division 2 match beforehand. Somehow he managed to pull together enough reserves to put in a solid performance at corner back and certainly gave the senior manager another option at corner back for the rest of the season - yet another senior dual star for St. John's!

The match began well enough for St. John's - James Murphy putting over 2 unanswered points from frees early on. This was as big a gap as the footballers would enjoy in the first half as Glenravel came back and managed to keep tabs with St. John's for the rest of the period.

Passing was, at times, erratic into the St. John's forward line and a few stray balls were easily sweeped up by the Glenravel defence and launched into the Johnnies' half. Determined defensive play by in-form Ciaran Anderson and Graham Clarke saw a number of certain scores blocked and moved outfield however, the ball came back too easily into the defence, which enabled Glenravel to apply pressure and enjoy more scoring chances. Both teams went in at half time all square at 0-5 to 0-5.

The second half, whilst remaining fairly tight, saw St. John's step up a gear and scores came from a variety of players. With Ciaran Anderson moved up into right 3/4's, and Gerard Hamilton and Stephen Thompson introduced to the forward line speed was the order of the day in the second half. Glenravel noticeably struggled to contain them or keep up with their many probing runs, Ciaran Anderson in particular torturing the Glenravel defence. The St. John's defence also tightened up somewhat on their men making Glenravel's scores much harder to come by.

James Murphy again added to his personal tally sending over more frees, centre-half back Karl McCabe started off a forward move, then made a supporting run into the Glenravel forward line and sent over a superbly taken point midway through the second half. Eamon Blaney finished off matters after receiving a pass from a fine move by Ciaran Anderson by fisting the ball over the bar from an acute angle.

A very good win for St. John's footballers considering the many missing players and which perhaps displayed the depth of the panel this year. The game finished up 0-10 to 0-7.

 

		St. John's
		B. Mulgrew
D. Rafferty		R. McHugh	K. Rafferty
C. Anderson		K. McCabe	G. Clarke
		J. Murphy S. Miller
A. Press		N. Convery	G. Clarke
E. Blaney		D. Reynolds	P. Nolan
(Subs: G. Hamilton for P. Nolan, S. Thompson for D. Reynolds)