Club News26/10/03 Loughgiel Stop U-16's Doing Three In A Row

Shamrocks Loughgiel 0:12 St. Johns Belfast 0:07

Loughgiel won this All County U-16 hurling championship final at a damp and soft Rossa Park avenging their defeat by the same opponents at the same stage of the competition last year and preventing St.Johns U-16's completing an impressive three in a row of U-16 County Hurling Titles.

Loughiel drew first blood on three minutes with a Shay Casey 21 yard free. This was followed by a ten minute heated exchange between the teams as nerves and tempers flared with several bookings, off the ball exchanges and one sending off for Loughgiel.
Referee Liam Donnelly (Ballymena), evidently trying to ensure we had a final to watch was extremely lenient to three or four players from both teams and would have been well within his rights to send a further two or three to the line at this stage.

Once all this had subsided, Casey pointed another 21 yard free for Loughgiel. St.Johns first real penetration into Loughgiels defence after 15 minutes resulted in a spate of five missed opportunities for scores mainly from pointable frees. Loughgiel then swung down the park for Liam McKillop to pop over the game's first score from play after 18 minutes from 35 metres out on the left. Further attacks from both teams resulted in numerous wides from play and from frees.

Eoghan Caldwell was then fouled in possession for St. Johns to give Fintan McKillop the opportunity to open their account with a 21 yard free on 22 minutes. This was shortly followed by the dismissal of another player, this time for St. John's just five minutes before the interval. This seemed to unsettle the Johnnies and Loughgiel went on a scoring spree with points from Shay Casey and Benny McGarry before Casey again with yet another 21 yard free to give the North Antrim champions a 5 point half time lead 0:06 to 0:01.

Upon resumption Loughgiel broke immediately and nearly netted only for the alertness of St. John's goal minder Paul Gribben who pulled off an excellent block. This seemed to inspire St. Johns who then had a 15 minute purple patch where they had dominant possession in Loughgiel's half but were only able to score two frees from McKillop and a solitary point from Barry McFall. St. Johns forwards had seven wides during this period and it was ultimately to cost them dearly.

With the score at 0:06 to 0:04 in Loughgiel's favour, Fintan McKillop pointed from play to leave the closest of margins between the sides and things looking promising for the young Johnnies. However three frees over the next 7 minutes from Loughgiel's Casey and only one solitary counter from St. Johns McFall left the Glensmen with a three point margin of 0:09 to 0:06.

St.John's substitute Sean Rooney managed to pull a score back to leave it 0:09 to 0:07 but Loughgiel added further points from two Casey frees and a good effort from Liam McKillop to leave the scores 0:12 to 0:07 at the final whistle.

Overall this was not the most memorial of finals but it was a game that either team could have won with a bit of luck. Loughgiel were best served by their defence with Sean Mulholland and Barry McFadden playing well. Sean Burns and Odhran McFadden made things difficult for St. Johns at centre field. Up front Shay Casey took enough scores to win the day for Loughgiel.

St. Johns would have to look to their defence for their best on this day. Certainly Kevin McGuinness hurled manly enough and was well supported by David Corner, Ciaran McCurdy and captain Conal Maskey. Simon McCrory certainly edged the midfield battle for St.Johns.

It's a point to note that both clubs expressed their dismay at this final not being played in Casement Park. If Casement wasn't able to hold three matches yesterday, surely another day could have been found.

Regardless our congratulations and appreciation must go to the Under 16 Hurling Management Team who secured the South Antrim U-16 Championship and the South Antrim U-16 Division 1 League Title and runners up in the All County U-16 hurling Championship 2003.

On behalf of all Club members, parents, supporters and players we salute you

		St. John's
		P. Gribben
P. McGarrity		C. McCurdy	M. Elliott
K. McGuinness		C. Maskey	D. Corner
		G. McCann S. McCrory
F McKillop		B. McFall	E. Caldwell
B. Holmes		K. Kennedy	C. McStein
(Subs: C. McCrudden for M. Elliott, S. Rooney for B. Holmes ) (Subs not used: Ciaran McKissock, Aodh Hamilton, Tomas Shannon, Aaron McKenna, Brendan McGibbon) Manager : Joe McCallin Assistant Manager: Collie McFall Mentor/Selector: Robbie McConnell Mentor/Selector: Paddy Morgan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOUGHGIEL: 1:Chris o'Connell 2: Paul McCloskey 3: Shane McMullan 4: Mark McFadden 5: Eddie McCloskey 6: Sean Mulholland 7: Barry McFadden 8: Sean Burns 9: Odhran McFadden 10: Liam McKillop 11: Eoghan McCarry 12: Martin McHenry 13: David Carey 14: Shay Casey 15: Brendan McCorry. Substitutes Used = Garran McKinley (38 minutes) for David Carey.
LOUGHIEL SCORERS = S.Casey 0:09 (0:08 frees), L.McKillop 0:02, B.McGarry 0:01.