Missed chances prove costly

Division 1 Senior League

St John’s 0 – 7 Coolaney / Mullinabreena 2 – 12

Missed chances prove costly

On a winter-like evening in Stenson Park Cuilbeg, St John’s senior team suffered a heavy defeat to a much fitter, faster slicker moving Coolaney / Mullinabreena side on Saturday last.
The visitors got off to a dream start with a scrambled goal within the first minute and during the remainder of the half added a further goal and four points with St John’s reply being two points from James Murphy leaving the half time score at 0 - 2 to 2 - 4 in favour of Coolaney / Mullinabreena.

In the second half matters improved slightly for the home team as they added points from Brian Mc Gowan, Conor Green, Shane Stenson and a further brace from Murphy. The visitors replied with 8 points of their own leaving them with a comfortable 11 points margin of victory.

While St John’s worked hard throughout the field, they could not match the fitness and accuracy of the visitors as once again the home side failed to convert chances into scores and hopefully this will be rectified in future fixtures.

The one bright light on a miserable evening however was the welcome return of Mickey O’Hehir who made a remarkable recovery from serious shoulder surgery back in January. O’Hehir’s quicker than expected return will give the St. John’s side a major boost as the team ramp up the intensity for what it is hoped will be a successful Championship campaign starting at the end of June.

St John’s team: Noel O’Donnell, Daniel Smith, Eoin Flanagan, Alex Selby; Brian Mc Gowan, Tommy Kelly, Conor Green; Shane Stenson, Paul Mc Namara,Mark Rooney,Mark Cunningham, Michael O’Hehir, Fiacra Grennan, James Murphy, Ian Rossiter. Subs; Ross Gordon, Geoff Corcoran, James Noonan, Andrew Kerr.