Understrength St. John's ship heavy loss to Castleconnor

St. John's Intermediate team in action in the 1st round of the Championship

Action from today's St. John's v Castleconnor tie

Meath man Terry Farrelly going forward in attack

Kennedy’s sponsored Sligo Intermediate football championship round 1

Castleconnor 3-21  St. John’s 0-6

Castleconnor cruise to  victory.

Castleconnor one of the favourites for this year’s Intermediate title cruised to an comprehensive 24 point victory over a severely depleted and understrength St. John’s side in Enniscrone, writes Michael McGee.

 The match was effectively over at half time with Castleconnor leading by 0-12 to 0-3.

The foundation for Castleconnor’ win came from their lethal full forward line of Mattew Cullen, Stephen Curley  & Eamon Cawley who were  simply scintillating.  The trio contributed handsomely  1-16 of Castleconnor’s overall total.  Both corner forwards Mullen & Curley were on fire and gave an exhibition of point scoring for the entire sixty minutes.  Castleconnor went straight into attack and their midfielder Patrick Naughton found himself with only the goalie to beat but he shot wide of Noel Hynes left upright. Kevin Langan then started the Castleconnor rout scoring a delightful score on the run from 21 meters out after 3 minutes. Mattew Cullen pointed soon after an initial great block by Hynes in the St. Johns goal.  Three minutes later Cullen again scoring off his left foot.  Stephen Curley the other flying corner forward got on the scoresheet a minute later.  St. John’s opened their account with an 43 metre free on 8 minutes from Gerard Fagan and he added another from 24 metres soon after. Further scores from Cullen & Curley put Castleconnor 7 points to 2 up  after 15 minutes. St. John’s Noel Hynes was forced into making another great save from Cullen. St. John’s Geoff Corcoran was forced off with a hamstring injury and he was replaced by Darren McGough. Further scores from Kevin Langan (3) and a point a piece from Stephen Cullen & Mattew Cullen put Castleconnor into already an unassailable 0-12 0-3 lead at half time.

For almost the entire second half the ball was going in only “one direction” towards the St. John’s goal. St. John’s midfielder Mark Cunningham,  Terry Farrelly & Killian Blake did their utmost to stem the incessant Castleconnor attack. Further scores from Stephen Curley Eamon Cawley( 2)  Kevin Langan had Castleconnor in the driving seat and Curley  made sure of a Castleconnor win when he shot low and hard pass Noel Hynes in the St. John’s goal for a great individual goal.  Castleconnor had the luxury of bringing on their 5 subs in the second half.  Stephen Kilgannon a substitute scored Castleconnor’s second goal and Owen Flynn added a third soon after.   All St. John’s had to show for their second half was 3 points from the boot of Kieran Blake.  Castleconnor’s lethal full forward attack of Stephen Curley, Mattew Cullen  and Eamon Cawley together were simply mesmerizing.  Kevin Langan ended the scoring with a goal at his mercy blasted over to seal victory for Castleconnor.

Castleconnor best players were Keith Earlis, Patrick Naughton, Owen Flynn, Kevin Langan and the entire full forward line of Curley, Cawley & Cullen were menacing in attack.  St. John’s had able performances from Terry Farrelly, Mark Cunningham, Killian Black & Gerard Fagan.

Scores St. John’s : Kieran Blake (0-3) Gerard Fagan (0-2) John Reilly (0-1)

Castleconnor:  Stephen Curley (1-8) Kevin Langan (0-5) Mattew Cullen ( 0-5)  Steven Kilgannon (1-0) Owen Flynn (1-0) Eamon Cawley (0-3)

St. John’s: Noel Hynes, John McNulty, Jamie Grehan, Andrew Kerr, Shane Kilcawley, Rory Kerins, Terry Farrelly, Mark Cunningham, Killian Blake, Jamie Grehan, John Reilly, Geoff Corcoran, Andrew Vallely , Fiachra Mooney, Gerard Fagan: Sub Darren McGough

Castleconnor: Anthony Kilcullen, Ronan Keane, Patrick McGuinness, John McDonnell, Eoin Kent, Michael Langan, Keith Earlis, Patrick Naughton, Kevin McDonnell, Owen Flynn, Kevin Langan, Paul Hackett, Stephen Curley, Eamon Cawley, Mattew Cullen. Subs used Brian Howley, Ciaran Kilcullen, Brendan Howley, Tomas Cawley, Stephen Kilgannon.

Referee: Malachy Maher.