02/05/04 Holiday weekend sees St. John's hurlers put away win in the bank

Gortnamona 0:14
St. Johns 1:15

It was a fine evening for hurling up in Gortnamona on Sunday, if a little blustery at times, and the seniors won a close encounter - laying to rest the defeat of last year's identical fixture. Brian McFall predictably proved to be the main provider of scores for the Johnnies on the night, with a huge array of scoring opportunities gone abegging from his fellow forwards.

The St. John's Hurling team

Gortnamona took an early lead with a couple of quick scores in the first five minutes of the game and, if anything, used their small pitch to far better effect than St. John's throughout the first half - their dangermen Sean Kelly and Brendan Quinn taking their points well. At the other end however Brian McFall had taken a couple of nice points and then the lead for St. John's as his shot for goal found the net. Collie Thompson followed this up with a well-fought for individual point. St. John's went in at halftime with a slender lead.

The first score of the second half went to St. John's after midfielder Conor Gannon latched onto a breaking ball, ran into space in the half forward line and struck the ball over the bar for a point. Gortnamona came back at the visitors however and levelled the match with three unanswered points. A superb sideline cut from 50 yards courtesy of Brian McFall earned the lead again for St. John's - a lead which they did not lose for the rest of the match. Gortnamona did apply pressure to the St. John's defence in the closing stages, bombarding the full back line with high balls but messrs Colm McFall, Mickey O'Neill and Chris Clarke were more than up to the task. Ronan Heenan also provided a couple of much needed catches in the half-back line which really took the pressure off the backs towards the end of the game.

Brian ended the match, fittingly, with a huge point from a free on the half back line, the final score 1-15 0-14.

Mickey 'Ginger Mixer' O'Neill was his ever-immense self in full back with his two corner men, Chris Clarke and Colm McFall (another great performance from the young man after his fine debut against Sarsfields), clearing a lot of ball.

Up front Neil Reynolds worked industriously at centre 3/4's with Paul Montgomery and Stephen Thompson providing some support, but it was Brian McFall who took home the spoils in the scoring department.

 

St. Johns: 1.Ciaran Cunningham 2. Colm McFall 3. Micky O'Neill 4. Chris Clarke 5. Gerard Cunningham 6. Ronan Heenan 7. Niall McCallin
8. Conor Gannon 9. Kevin Rafferty 10. Gerard McFall 11. Neil Reynolds 12. Paul Montgomery 13. Colin Thompson 14. Brian McFall
15. Stephen Thompson 16. Niall Grego 17. Hugo 'Duncan' Kennedy 18. Anto Brennan 19. Simon McCrory 20. Locky McCurdy 21. John Joe Hartigan 22. Colm McFall 23. Martin McMahon
Substitutes: Locky McCurdy for Kevin Rafferty (15 mins), Niall Grego for Colin Thompson (45 mins), Simon McCrory for Gerard McFall (50mins)

Manager: Liam Donnelly
Mentors: Fergal Collins, Brendan Mackin, Paul Collins, Brendan McQuillan, Michael Gannon