St. Johns U-16 footballers gave the much fancied Davitts a scare in this first round championship game at St. Galls on Thursday evening. Paddy Hope opened Davitts account on 5 minutes with an opportunist fisted goal before the Johnnies mounted a steady comeback putting Davitts under pressure for the next 10 minutes with points from Brian Neeson(2), and Par Gregory (1).

St. John's Under 16 Footballers

Indeed Davitts looked shaky at this stage before they regrouped and took the game to St. Johns with an excellent 40m free from Sean O’Neill. O’Neill followed this with another 30m point from play before Aaron Jack popped over another free from 30m out on the left to leave Davitts 3 points in front. Neeson replied for St.Johns with a 30m free from the right to leave the half time score 1:03 to 0:04 points in Davitts favour.

The start of the second half saw a flurry of action when Sean-Paul Wright punched a goal in the first 5 minutes to give the Johnnies a one point lead. But despite several minutes of sustained Johnnies pressure no other scores were registered before Davitts broke and Aaron Jack pointed a 25m free to level the scores.

Davitts then applied a period of sustained pressure on the Johnnies defence with full forward Padraig Hope pointing and then blasting a good goal from 12 yards to the Johnnie net to give Davitts a 4 point lead with 18 minutes to go.

But St. Johns weren’t out of this one yet. Brian Neeson pointed a 20m free a minute later which was shortly followed by a great individual effort from Peter McGarrity who soloed some 40m before crashing the ball to the roof of the net off the cross bar to level the scores. More pressure from St.Johns resulted in further points from Sean-Paul Wright and another Brian Neeson free to give St.Johns a 2:07 to 2:05 lead with 8 minutes to go.

But Davitts rallied well and managed a string of points from Aaron Jack (3),Sean Og O’Neill (2) and Gareth Marron (1) with a 30m Neeson free , St Johns solitary reply.

Certainly this was a game that either team could have won but St.Johns must be kicking themselves after losing a hard won 2 point lead with 8 minutes remaining.

Davitts on the other hand were shaky at times but ultimately lifted their game when it mattered most in the last few minutes.

Davitts: 1. Carl O Broin, 2.Pol Mac an Tuaile, 3.Lee O Cinneide 4.Deaglan MacCiarain 5.Padraig MacRuairigh 6.Colm MacAulaigh 7.Conor MacCarthaigh 8.Sean Og O’Neill 9.Stiofan Crillen 10.Aaron Seac, 11.Eamon Kyles 12.Stiofan MacTomhnair 13.Fiontain Cosgrove, 14.Padraig Hope, 15.Gareth Marron

Davitts Scorers: Paddy Hope 2:01, Aaron Jack 0:05(3f), Sean Og O’Neill 0:04(1f),Gareth Marron 0:01.

St. Johns: 1.Jim McFerran 2.Aodh Hamilton, 3.James Darragh 4.Conor Kearney 5.Colm McCrudden 6.Kevin Cunningham 7.Anthony Moore 8.Eoghan Caldwell 9.Gary Stone 10.Pat Gregory 11.Brian Neeson 12.Peter McGarrity 13.Sean-Paul Wright 14.Barry McFall 15.Declan McVeigh

St. Johns Substitutes: 16.Aodhan Mulholland 20 mins 17 Brendan McGibbon 35mins

18.Ciaran McKissock 19.Michael Flannery 20.Tommy McDonald 21.Ciaran Boyle

St. Johns Scorers: Brian Neeson 0:06(5f), Sean-Paul Wright 1:01, Peter McGarrity 1:00, Par Gregory 0:01