Club News

11/10/03 Senior hurlers take the points in Ballycastle bonanza

With as close to a full team as the senior hurlers have had all year, bar the second leg of the championship against Glenariffe, hopes were high, despite the poor form shown in the latter half of the season.

Senior hurling was also up against it given the poor turnouts for training sessions and a general malaise which seemed to have become embedded in some of the hurling fraternity, however Saturday's game away to Ballycastle exorcised some demons at least and gave the team a much needed boost in the right direction.

Conditions were treacherous on the way up to the match however, torrential rain, strong winds and a closure on the M2 couldn't stop the hurlers from making this fixture. Surprisingly once the team arrived at the ground there was no rain and the pitch itself was in a remarkably good state of repair.

The match started well for St. John's, they took a couple fo early points, a nice move up front produced a goal midway through the first half from Liam Boyle and the defence kept Ballycastle out almost entirely. St. John's could have been further in the lead with a few wides coming from Brian McFall, and corner-back Conor Gannon (rueing his near miss after a good run up the right flank). But for a lapse in concentration towards the end of the first half, giving away a few unnecessary frees, the defence could have kept Ballycastle scoreless - as it was St. John's went in at the break 1-03 to 0-03 in the lead.

The second half didn't see the hurlers let up as they pushed for an important away win. John Mead made an instant impact in corner forward when he was introduced to the field, Brian McFall sent 2 frees, expertly taken, straight to the back of the net and Gerard McFall sent over 3 frees (in fact he had a 100% conversion rate for this match, missing on no occasion).

Even though Brian looked, at times, all at sea in the full-forward position he showed some glimpses of the great talent he undeniably has when he scored 3 goals and was involved in the setting up of a fourth - a neat lay off to Liam Boyle in the first half.

Stephen Thompson turned in one of his best performances of the season at left-half forward, gathering plenty of the ball and sending in good passes to his other forwards before getting himself on the scoresheet.

The entire defence had a good game (keeper Ciaran Cunningham keeping a clean sheet and making a save in the second half when needed) with Gareth Clarke and Gerard Cunningham controlling their half-back positions, especially in the second half.

Perhaps most impressive of all on the day was Neil Reynolds at midfield - he really stamped his authority throughout the match, cutting great balls from the sideline, winning the aerial battles around the middle of the park, as well as getting back to help out the defence. Most noticeably he didn't lose his cool during the game and given this 'controlled' display it could possibly signal a turning point for him as he matures into the strong hurler everyone knows he could be.

His midfield partner Niall McCallin also performed well (despite this being his second match of the day).

Another notable aspect of the match was Ronan Heenan - topping the leaderboard this year for most frees and yards conceded for verbal sparring with referees he contained his outbursts to only one (which yielded a yellow card in the first half). Whilst many of the players may have been trying to come up with ways of keeping Ron's mouth shut - gagging, tongue removal - he then surprised them all by turning in one of his vocally quietest performances of the season.

Ronan Heenan gagged?

The match ended 0-10 to 5-09.

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