26/06/04 Johnnies Footballers Restore Some Pride

Having suffered the embarrassment of being knocked out of the senior football championship by division 2 side Glenavy on Wednesday, the senior footballers responded in the best way by giving Sarsfields a thorough thrashing in the 'losers' section of the championship.

St. John's were still missing several key players for this match and lost Captain Enda McKenna shortly before the throw-in and after ten minutes county player Gearoid Adams pulled up with a hamstring injury. Taking all this into account things did not look well and the possibility of a defeat in the 'backdoor' system was staring St. John's right in the face.

The first half was a close affair with St.J ohn's starting the stronger with the defence tackling well and playing some good early ball into the forward-line that had been missing in the previous games. The forwards too displayed more confidence moving freely with target man Donal Kennedy, Liam Boyle and Jimmy Wilson looking sharp and taking a 0-6 to 0-2 half-time lead.

The second half was a completely different story St. John's came out all guns blazing and proceeded to put Sarsfields away. After a good pass from Liam Boyle Donal Kennedy found the Sarsfields net, then Packie Nolan sent converted defender Anto Press in for the first of his brace of goals. This opened the floodgates with goals from Jimmy Wilson on 53 minutes, then Locky Mc Curdy and Anto Press again brought the total to five and thoroughly demoralised the Sarsfields challenge.

St. John's went on to rack up 5-13 to 0-5, a comprehensive win by any matter of means. This win was most needed as the footballers season threatened to go of the rails after the first round exit. Although tougher tests lie ahead, it was the manner of the victory that would have impressed the management team (Gerry McCann, Conal Heatley and Stephen McCann) with the forwards playing some nice intricate football and taking some good scores. The big plus point was the defence, that struggled badly against Glenavy, although the back six all played well coping with their men and setting up attacking movements it was Ronan McHugh (back to something of his best 'snuffing' out the threat of Cormac Carmichael) and John Kelly dominating affairs from centre-half back that stood out for St. John's.

This win gives St. John's a good break until the next round of the qualifiers in August where they can iron out some of the flaws in their performances. With 28 players utilised in the last 3 matches and the emaciated Intermediate team falling foul of McDermotts St. John's will be looking to its senior players to provide plenty more footballing thrills during the summer.

St. Johns: 1. R.Tipedeau 2. D. Rafferty 3. R. McHugh 4. C. Clarke 5. C. Anderson 6. J. Kelly 7. A. Douglas 8. L. McCurdy 9. J. Connolly 10. G. Adams 11. J. Wilson 12. A. Press 13. L. Boyle 14. D. Kennedy 15. P. Nolan
Subs: G. Rafferty for G. Adams, E. Mc Kenna for G. Rafferty

Manager: Gerry McCann
Mentors: Conal Heatley, Stephen McCann