Club News

18/06/03 Hurlers face big task after 1st leg of the championship

Whilst the occasion may have gotten the better of some people, there may have just been too much over-confidence amongst the players. In the championship last year the hurlers managed to overcome Glenariffe with just 14 men for the majority of the match and even then their performance was not the best it could have been. However, with form this year being unpredictable and the last match against Glenariffe being a tight affair perhaps a more cautionary approach would have been warranted.

Regardless, St. John's defence let in 5 goals against their opponents up in the Glens - the highest number conceded in 1 match this year - 2 goals were conceded early on in the first half due to some slack defending and poor covering which meant that the full back line were swamped with Glenariffe forwards and the inevitable overlap opened the goals up to plenty of scoring opportunities for the home side. The 2 goals in quick succession stunned the St. John's team, and as with the league game a few weeks previously they found themselves way behind before they could register a score. Brian McFall opened the scoring up for the Johnnies converting a free and sending over another from play. St. John's then started to build their scores up slowly and claw their way back, however when half time came they were 7 points down.

The second half was a topsy-turvy affair with St. John's rattling in 2 goals courtesy of Brian McFall and Stephen Thompson to cut the deficit and the goals could have been more for the Johnnies were it not for an inspired performance by the Glenariffe keeper. Glenariffe put 3 goals past the Johnnies keeper in the second half - 2 of them of high quality - one a volley into the net and the second a precision finish coming from a long solo-run by Johnnie McIntosh (who gave a tremendous scoring display and didn't hit one wide in the entire match).

Which isn't to say that the scores were wildly dissimilar - if you take away the 2 poor goals at the start of the match St. John's pretty much exchanged scores throughout the game with Glenariffe. One obvious problem was that too many St. John's point attempts fell into the hand of the Glenariffe keeper and instead of being a point further on the defence were then put under pressure by the long puck outs by the keeper. Disappointingly as a result of frustrated reactions by the players and some dubious one-sided decisions by the referee (and his linesmen) 5 St. John's players were shown yellow cards by the end of the game - discipline will therefore also be a key factor in the next game.

The match ended 5-12 to 2-11 for Glenariffe.

With the aggregate score system coming into play St. John's will start their next championship game 10 points adrift before the ball is thrown in, so it will be all out attack and a tightened defence which the management will be hoping for. To win would mean St. John's hurlers would probably have to produce the performance of the season, but it is within their means and every hurler will be going out onto the pitch with that one thought in their heads - that they can win. If they were to win it would potentially give them the impetus and confidence needed to go far in the competition, if not then they will have to put this year down to the poor 1st leg performance - as so often happens 'it is all on the day' and on Wednesday night last the hurlers were on the wrong end, hopefully next Wednesday they will be able to turn it around.

Glenariffe had huge local support for their home match and we would ask that all St. John's supporters turn out to give as much support to their team as possible on Wednesday night.

		St. John's
		C. Cunningham
N. Rooney		A. Brennan	C. Clarke
C. Cunningham		G. Cunningham	N. McCallin
		G. Clarke R. Heenan
S. Thompson		L. McCurdy	B. McFall
L. Boyle		D. O'Hara	J. Mead
Subs: L. Knocker for C. Cunningham, J.J. Hartigan for A. Brennan, G. Hamilton for D. O'Hara, G. McFall for J. Mead