Club News

09/03/03 Division 3 Footballers lose to St. Galls in close affair

The first match of a new season is always something of a mixed bag - the team won't have played much, if any, matches together, whilst physical training has been on the agenda for a number of weeks a brave few rusty players probably won't have kicked a ball for a number of months, but there's still enough enthusiasm and energy for the new year ahead to produce a half decent performance. This was certainly the case on Sunday.

The St. John's Poleglass pitch provided as good a surface as anyone could hope for in Belfast, considering the recent heavy spells of rain and the weather itself eased a little to give those few who turned up to see the game, and those players taking part, relatively decent conditions. St. Gall's started this game the brighter putting a couple of early scores on the board and then scoring a goal after one of their midfielders was allowed to stroll within 8 yards of the net completely unmarked. St. John's sent over a couple of wides before managing to get a point in this phase, bringing the scores to 1-2 to 0-1, however they soon shook off their winter blues with a great move from Gareth Clarke as he advanced on the St. Gall's goal. Seeing the keeper coming off his line he calmly sent the ball cheekily over the keeper from 20 yards and in the process brought St. John's back into the game.

Within a few minutes young Clarke was at the centre of the next St. John's move sending in a great cross to Colly McKnight in full forward who took it well and continued on into the box for what seemed like an inevitable goal - however he was cynically brought down courtesy of a clumsy tackle by the St. Galls keeper and a penalty was awarded. Unfortunately for the keeper he seemed to come off a little the worse for wear than the agile McKnight and had to be substituted soon after. Colly Thompson stepped up to take the penalty and sent it to the back of the net with consumate ease. From then on St. John's were gaining the upper hand against St. Galls with a number of nice points adding to their tally of goals however, in the second half the lack of St. John's scores was quickly pounced upon by St. Galls as they chipped away at the lead with a number of well taken points and converted frees.

Whilst St. John's had the majority of the possession at times, St. Gall's continued quietly about their business and ended up winning by two points at the finish 1-11 to 2-6. Mickey O'Neill and Liam Donnelly (captain this year) were the best to come out of the St. John's defence whereas Gareth Clarke and Graham Clarke showed well further up the field.

Whilst the season began with a defeat, something which the team obviously would not have wanted, it was promising to see the strength of the squad this year - considering the absence of a number of players from the very talented minor team, who were at the same time lifting the Winter County Football League Title in Corrigan Park.

 

		St. John's
		H. Kennedy
C. Gannon		M. O'Neill	E. McGurk
A. Kelly		L. Donnelly	D. McAllister
		N. Reyonlds G. Clarke
F. Collins		C. Thompson	C. Clarke
B. Moore		C. McKnight	D. Crummey
(Subs: K. Rafferty for E. McGurk, G. Clarke for B. Moore, J. Connolly for A. Kelly, N. Kelly for D. Crummey)