Good win in opening JFC game V St Pauls

St Josephs 2-12 St Pauls 0-11

Wet and windy conditions didn’t spoil what was a good opening for St Josephs in this years Junior football championship as we had seven points to spare over St Pauls at Springfield on Saturday 8th August. Seven points suggests a comfortable win but it was tight throughout and indeed on another day Pauls could well have taken the spoils. The difference was that we got a great start and we were flying in the opening quarter as we led by 0-8 to 0-2 at the first water break. The second quarter was evenly contested but we finished the half impressively with a goal to lead by 1-10 to 0-4 at half time. In the second half we faced wind and rain and despite a goal scare early on, our second goal came in the fifth minute when Ros Elliffe judged a long ball well to place past the unfortunate St Pauls goalkeeper leaving St Josephs 2-10 to 0-5 ahead. Credit to St Pauls, they came forcefully into the game and veteran Philip Gilsenan caused us problems and was unlucky not to have claimed at least one goal in the third quarter. At the second half water break we led by 2-10 to 0-8 and the final quarter was evenly contested as we held on for a very useful and long overdue win over St Pauls. Going back to the first half, the early work on the scoreboard was crucial as we started like a whirlwind with three points on the board inside the opening four minutes with Dean Slevin,Padraig Moran and Jordan Mc Donnell on the mark. The early blitz continued to the water break with further scores from the same trio and a point from Niall Moran which put us six ahead at the water break. St Pauls had a much better second quarter and came well into the game but they hadn’t their shooting boots calibrated as a few chances went badly astray. St Josephs got a well deserved goal in the final minute of the half when a sweeping move saw Ros Elliffe flick home a goal to leave us nine in front at half time. The second goal we got early in the second half proved vital as it gave us a decent cushion in the testing conditions. We lost the second half narrowly by 1-2 to 0-7 but significantly we kept our goal intact. The defence played well for the most part though their were a few hairy moments in the second half when our opponents pushed us hard with Alan Farrell holding the full back line in place and Cathal Boland have a very good outing between the sticks. However, as a unit, the entire back division battled very hard at all times. Midfield of Dean Slevin and Brian Keegan held their own with Dean having a very lively opening half claiming three good points. Pearse Weir Norris at centre back and Aaron Mc Donnell wearing 14 covered acres of space and assisted the middle area well while Jordan Mc Donnell,Padraig Moran and Niall Moran offered the main scoring threat throughout. Andy Scally though not on the scoresheet did his job as a link man very efficiently from centre forward and overall you could not fault any of the starting fifteen or substitutes for their efforts. It is a team effort from one to 31 so those who did not feature today may well do so the next day. A great start and well done to all the team and Management.

Team:Cathal Boland,Kieran Boyle,Alan Farrell,Brian Killian,Brian fitzgerald,Pearse Weir Norris,Mark Mc Cormack,Dean Slevin(0-3),Brian Keegan,Mickey Lynam,Andy Scally,Jordan Mc Donnell(0-4),Niall Moran(0-3),Aaron Mc Donnell,Padraig Moran(0-2). Subs introduced; Ros Elliffe(2-0),Adam Kelly,Denis Leen