Club News

19/05/03 Hurlers snatch a draw from the jaws of victory up the Glens

What should have been one of the highest winning margins of this year's league for St. John's all went out the window in the dying seconds as Cushendun fought back to tie the match 4-7 to 2-13 in the hurlers' away match on Monday night.

St. John's dominated for the majority of the match against a weak Cushendun team who depended heavily on County forward Aidan Mort for their scores. Indeed he was something of a torment for the St. John's backline, though he only scored 1 goal and a few points for his side. It was the frees which the defence gave away against him which proved his biggest contribution for the 'Dun.

Brian McFall was back for the Johnnies and he made his presence felt throughout the game taking some fine points and converting a number of frees as well. Whilst St. John's took a number of early points it was Cushendun who managed to take the lead after 15 minutes with 2 goals. This was to be the only time they led however as St. John's upped the ante and pointed with greater regularity. A number of point chances and indeed goal chances went abegging in the first half but St. John's still went in at half time with a slender lead.

In the second half Stephen Thompson scored two goals which seemed to reflect St. John's dominance in the scoreboard a bit more accurately and after Paul Montgomery and Ronan Heenan pointed for St. John's a victory looked to be assured as they led by 8 points with 10 minutes to go.

Unfortunately Cushendun's desperate barrage of the St. John's goal paid off as they snuck home with 2 goals and 2 points to tie the game. During this period St. John's did not manage to register any score and the sides went home with a point a piece. Whilst 4 goals were conceeded the Johnnies keeper could do nothing about 3 of them and in fact he pulled off a wonder save from a shot which resulted from a close-in free.

St. John's will be disappointed at throwing away such a commanding lead within such a short period of time but in terms of scoring and overall performance it was a vast improvement on the previous week's match against St. Paul's.

 

		St. John's
		C. Cunningham
C. Gannon		M. O'Neill	N. McCallin
G. Cunningham		K. Rafferty	C. Clarke
		G. Clarke B. McFall
G. Hamilton		R. Heenan	S. Thompson
N. Kelly		P. Montgomery	J. Mead
(Subs: L. McCurdy for N. Kelly)