Club News30/05/03 Intermediates 1st round championship win in Ballymena, hi!

St. John's Division 3 footballers recorded a great win over the Division 2 team of All Saints Ballymena away in the Intermediate championship on Friday night. The team looked to be in extremely good form all over the pitch and rarely showed any weaknesses at all as they stomped home with a big victory against the home side.

The game got off to a blistering pace and St. John's registered a score within the first 20 seconds of the whistle thanks to Windy Miller winning the throwin, passing the ball to Niall McCallin, who sent a precision ball into the chest of Liam Boyle who promptly stuck the ball over the bar with his deadly left foot. Moments later he repeated the feat with his left foot after another good ball was sent into him, his marker having a torrid time coping with his pace and accuracy (he was later to be replaced, to little effect).

However, Ballymena fought back with 3 points to go 1 up, but this was to be the only time in the match that they would experience what it was like to be in front as St. John's sent over 4 unanswered points to make it 0-6 to 0-3 at halftime.

Elsewhere on the pitch midfielder Windy Miller was playing one of his best games since joining St. John's on transfer from the Calgary Cougars some 5 years ago. He fielded the ball superbly, in fact he must have won or fisted down the ball for a waiting St. John's man on almost every occasion, chased down everything and sent over a nice point in the 2nd half to cap off a great performance. His midfield partner Gareth Clarke also got a point from play and sent in consistently good balls to the forward line.

Big Joe Hand terrorised the Ballymena backline with his strength and determination and proved more than a 'hand'ful for more than one of the defenders before he had to retire late in the game due to dislocated fingers.

The fullback line for St. John's was probably the strongest line of the night, Niall Convery used his strength to thwart any Ballymena men coming near the square whilst his two wing backs, Buttons and Anto Press, didn't allow their men an inch of space and kept the ball going out at all times. Both men did well to keep out County player Peter McCann once he was introduced to the Ballymena side.

At centre half Niall McCallin turned in another accomplished performance, he tackled and defended well, and sent in great passes to the forwards which, for the most part, yielded scores.

The second half saw substitute John Mead come to life as he won a lot of ball and eventually sent in a great shot which beat the Ballymena keeper and put some distance between the sides. Fergal Collins and Colly McKnight also sent over a couple of nice points.

In the end St. John's won comfortably 1-13 0-8 (much to the delight of father and son management team Gerry and Stephen McCann - whose efforts were rewarded on the night), and they will be looking for good performances in the league in the next few weeks to act as good preparation for the next round of the championship.

 

		St. John's
		B. Mulgrew
D. McAllister		N. Convery	A. Press
A. Douglas		N. McCallin	C. Clarke
		G. Clarke S. Miller
D. Reynolds		F. Collins	C. McKnight
L. Boyle		J. Hand	G. Rafferty
(Subs: J. Mead for G. Rafferty, K. McGlinchey for J. Hand, C. Thompson for D. Reynolds)