23/04/04 St. John's Div 2 Footballers win classic encounter at Aldergrove

Aldergrove 1:10
St. Johns 1:11

Those few St. John's supporters who travelled to Crumlin on Friday night were treated to an exciting, nail-biting football match between their two determined teams. This match had absolutely everything - great footballl, superb teamwork, individual inspiration, high-drama - In short, Alfred Hitchcock would have been hard pressed to offer up more thrills over 70 minutes.

The St. John's Div 2 Football team

After two defeats for the Division 2 football team (including a drubbing at the hands of McDermotts) expectations were somewhat reserved as St. John's made the short trip to Crumlin, which has become a difficult fixture over the last 3 seasons. Any doubts were quickly swept away however as St. John's started brightly right from the whistle.

Whereas wayward passing had been the order of the day for St. John's in their last match against McDermotts, this was replaced by pinpoint accuracy coming out of the defence. The half-backline (arguably the strongest line on the night) of Kevin Kennedy, Chris Clarke and Conor Gannon intercepted a steady stream of Aldergrove passes and then began the St. John's moves into the forward line, indeed they continued in the same vein throughout the night.

Veteran St. John's footballer Enda McGurk kept at bay Aldergrove's speedy corner forward whilst Aaron Douglas and Ciaran McCurdy were solid also in the full back line.

The first half couldn't have been a closer affair with both teams producnig a high standard of football. Collie McKnight scored an early point for St. John's, as did Locky McCurdy and Donal Kennedy. Midfielder Joe Herald scored a wonder point from 45m out as he raced onto a loose ball and struck it, off the deck, high over the bar.

Collie 'Grumpy' McKnight

Following one of the best moves of the night Collie McKnight (seen here on the left as an under 16 hurler) got onto the end of a long Liam Knocker pass and stormed into shooting range of the Aldergrove posts. He kicked the ball straight over the bar at full pelt and, whilst the majority of St. John's were applauding the fine score they were unaware that tragedy had struck at exactly the same time. Whereas everyone had followed the flight of the ball over the bar they failed to see the late tackle which had caused Collie to be writhing around the ground in agony. Worry turned to dismay as a stretcher was brought out and the Johnnies red-headed stalwart was carried from the field.

An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes to take him to hospital with suspected ligament damage and a twisted knee. Soon after the half-time whistle blew and both sides were level 0:04 to 0:04.

The loss of McKnight was a huge blow to the St. John's cause but, far from halting the St. John's advance, it spurred the team on. Once the halftime team talk was over Donal Kennedy pointed to the side of the pitch where McKnight lay on the stretcher awaiting the ambulance and told the team to go out and win it for their fallen team mate.
And that's just what they did.

Again the match was on a knife edge throughout the second half, the game could go either way - Aldergrove taking some nice scores and St. John's - through David Reynolds, Donal Kennedy and Packie Nolan - edging slightly ahead. With 10 minutes to go Ciaran 'Jackpot' McCurdy gave away a penalty as an Aldergrove forward (for the first time in the match thwarting the whole St. John's defence) was one-on-one with the keeper. A goal conversion put Aldergrove 1 point in front, and a further point from Aldergrove made it look as if the home side was going to take spoils.

Not so, as their was one final twist in the tale. Substitute Joe Hand had begun punting every ball he got at midfield into the St. John's full forward Donal Kennedy. And, a la Steven McDonnell, Donal tortured the Aldergrove full back by catching every single high ball that came into the area. This produced a few points but, more importantly it produced a penalty for St. John's as he was fouled making his way into the box. The pressure must have been excruciating, scoring the goal would put St. John's into a slender lead in the dying minutes of the match, a point would bring them tantalisingly close to drawing level.

Donal stepped up to take the penalty and Johnnies anxiety turned to elation as he calmly, and deftly, sent the keeper the wrong way and tapped the ball into the far corner. Aldergrove immediately moved the ball up the field in search of an equalising point, however the ball was struck wide and the subsequent kickout from the St. John's keeper was bravely caught by man of the match Kevin Kennedy. Even though the ball came like a bullet, Kevin managed to catch it, get back up onto his feet, get clear of numerous Aldergrove players and send the ball up the pitch. St. John's got another point from this move. Aldergrove could only manage a single point before the referee blew up for full time.

A superb match, a superb win and one which will stay in the players' and supporters' minds for some time to come.

Everyone played well for St. John's, Joe Herald and Liam Knocker doing great in unfamiliar roles for them, with Donal Kennedy, David Reynolds and Locky McCurdy producing the goods when push came to shove.

The team no doubt hopes that their talisman Collie McKnight can recover from his serious injury as soon as possible, although early indications are that his season could be over. Lets hope this proves to be wrong.

St. Johns 1. R. Thibideux 2. C. McCurdy 3. A. Douglas 4. E. McGurk 5. K. Kennedy 6. Chris Clarke 7. C. Gannon 8. J. Herald 9. J. Connolly 10. D. Reynolds 11. C. McKnight 12. L. Knocker 13. J. McCallin 14. D. Kennedy 15. L. McCurdy
Substitutes: S. Mallon for C. McKnight, P. Nolan for J. McCallin, J. Hand for J. Connolly, B. Moore for L. McCurdy

Manager: E. McAtamney
Mentors: R. Best