Drumaness 1-4 St Johns 3-14
ACMFC
Tuesday 5 July 2011
@ Drumaness

The Minors got their Championship campaign off to a winning start away to Drumaness winning by 16 points, 1-4 to 3-14.

St. John?s started the game on top winning possession right away from the throw in and dominating possession but it took almost 5 minutes for the first score, which came through a Martin Keenan point. Drumaness gradually got into the game and missed a few chances before they were punished with a counter attack from the Johnnies which finished up with Martin Keenan being fouled inside the box which Conor Gilmore scored from.

This is the sixth penalty St. John?s have won this season which shows that opposition defences are finding it hard to deal with late runners from deep as well as the movement of the forwards. The Johnnies added a second goal almost immediately thanks to a pinpoint pass out of defence from Ryan Gordon which found Darren Burns on the 21 who finished first time into the bottom right hand corner.

The teams then exchanged points as Drumaness got their first score of the game with a 14 yard free with Paddy Keenan getting the Johnnies second point of the game. Chris McKay then started to win ball in full forward even with close attention from his man and this resulted in him pointing a free, adding a third goal as well as a fine score from play. Conor Gilmore took a great team score soon after that resulted in several fist passes freeing the space for Conor to shoot.

St. John?s finished the half on top with a fisted point from Darren Burns after quick thinking from Chris McKay who also got the last score of the half with a free kick to leave the half time score Drumaness 0-1, St. John?s 3-7.

Drumaness got the first score of the second half with a point before Chris McKay pointed for the Johnnies. Drumaness got another point soon after which was followed up by a goal. However this goal was quickly cancelled out thanks to well worked points from Chris McKay, Darren Burns and Martin Keenan who had moved to full forward. Drumaness scored another point from a free which would prove to be their last score of the game.

After this St. John?s played the game out holding possession and opening up the space for Chris McKay and Martin Keenan to point. The final score of the game came from Darren Burns who worked a short free kick with Chris McKay before soloing forward and pointing. The maturity of the older players showed in the final 10 minutes as they held possession along with the work rate of Chris McKay and Darren Burns?s ability to break tackles as well as Joe Milligan having his best game of the year and Darren Morgan?s safe handling and smart kick outs which led to scores resulted in St. John?s being able to ease up near the end.

Final Score ? Drumaness 1-4, St. John?s 3-14

Team and Scorers ? Darren Morgan; Kevin Keenan, Joe Milligan, Conor Savage; Coalan Carville, Ryan Gordon, John Girvan; Neill Magorrian, Darren Burns (1-3); Martin Keenan (0-3), Hugh Flanagan, Conor Gilmore (1-1, 1-0 pen); Paddy Keenan (0-1), Chris McKay (1-6, 0-2 fk), Jerome Gordon. Sub ? Neil Savage (for Paddy Keenan), Paddy Keenan) for Jerome Gordon).

It would be appreciated, mainly by the players, if a few more of our ?supporters? could be encouraged to support the team. If they can?t follow a team that has been undefeated all year, who can they follow?