Club News

19/08/03 Minors weather stormy Glenariffe in Hurling Championship

Another thoroughly professional display by St. John's minors saw them earn themselves another quality scalp in the championship - despite losing midfield maestro John Mead midway through the first half due to injury.

In a carbon copy of the first match things were tight for the minors in the first half, some players finding time to settle a few nerves however, in defence Ciaran McCurdy and Joe Herald came out of the blocks sprinting with great displays right from the start.

Whilst conditions were dry, there was a strong wind blowing diagonally across the pitch, favouring Glenariffe in the first half. This helped them put over a few long range points, and also assisted the keeper in his puck outs which found their way, on almost every occasion, into the heart of the St. John's defence. One long range ball broke fortuitously into the Glenariffe full forward line and when the full forward found himself with bags of space, despite Kevin McGlinchey's efforts to intercept, he stuck the ball into the St. John's net.

This goal helped give Glenariffe a 2 point lead midway through the first half.

'Sticks were flying' from a number of the Glenariffe forwards, which saw them pick up yellow cards for their efforts, however the St. John's defenders stuck to their task. A prime example of this came 20mins through the first half when midfielder John Mead received a vicious strike across his arm (leaving the field as a result of the injury minutes later), having caught bravely a St. John's puck-out - the referee failed to even take the offender's name, let alone produce a card but St. John's continued on about their business in a professional, determined manner.

Gerardo Hamilton came on to replace Meader, moving into centre ¾'s and Liam Knocker moved into midfield.

Behind by 3 points captain Niall McCallin put over a nice point from a 65 in the first half, whilst Liam Boyle sent over a couple of frees, despite the difficult cross-wind which made judging the shots a free-taker's nightmare. Simon McCrory scored a nice point out on the left wing and further points from Peter Begley and Barry McFall followed until Jimmy Peoples scored the first of his 2 goals - proving himself to have a great attacker's knack of being in the right place at the right time.

St. John's led at half-time by 2 points 1-07 to 1-05.

More yellow cards followed for Glenariffe in the second half (despite having skilful hurlers aplenty they seemed more interested in hitting players than playing hurling), around 6 yellow cards handed out in total, however all managed somehow to remain on the field despite blatant persistent fouling.

This suited St. John's as they began to break away with some great scores from Niall McCallin, Gerardo Hamilton, Simon McCrory, Adrian Oliver (impressive in full forward for the Johnnies) and Liam Boyle. When Jimmy Peoples scored his second goal after 10 minutes of the second half St. John's had built up an impressive lead, and with the defence coming into their own (Colm McFall and Conal Maskey putting in fine displays) Glenariffe never looked like coming back. Even when Glenariffe managed to get a second goal midway through the second half St. John's seemed in control of the game.

Any lingering doubts were finally put to rest when St. John's scored their third goal, courtesy of Liam Boyle. A few more points saw St. John's finish strongly 3-15 2-07.

With a large compliment of St. John's supporters and senior hurlers at the match there was certainly plenty for them to talk about afterwards given the great display, speed and skill shown by the young St. John's men.

 

		St. John's
		K. McGlinchey
C. McCurdy		N. Rooney	C. McFall
J. Herald		N. McCallin	C. Maskey
		J. Mead P. Begley
L. Boyle		L. Knocker	S. McCrory
J. Peoples		A. Oliver	B. McFall
(Subs: G. Hamilton for J. Mead)