The minor footballers stayed in the hunt for league honours with a 4-point victory over Ardoyne at Falls Park. We started the scoring when Tony McLaughlin latched onto a defence splitting pass from Aaron Slane to kick a point. This was quickly followed by a well taken goal from Brendan ‘Sweatpea’ Clarke and we enjoyed plenty of possession and played some decent football, adding further points from Niall Hughes and Aaron Slane before Ardoyne opened their account . They kicked two minor scores, the second from a fair distance to reduce the deficit as the play moved from end-to-end.
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Some quick hands lead to a point when Chris Gallagher received the ball from Pearse McAuley to score before Ardoyne pushed upfield to kick another two points. We reacted positively and Gallagher returned the favour, laying on McAuley for a well-taken goal before Gallagher took his second point score after a strong run from the ’45. McAuley kicked another fine point before half time to give us a lead of 2-6 to 0-4.
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Ardoyne started the second half strongly strongly and enjoyed much of the possesison in the early stages. Their efforts were rewarded with a goal before the teams shared four points; Pearse McAuley taking both scores for us. Following a couple of substitutions, the visitors were more competitive and we found it difficult to get the ball upfield. Ardoyne kicked a point from placed ball to narrow the gap to four but we responded in the best way possible, when we smartly moved the ball from one end of the field to the other where McAuley scored his second goal, taking his tally to 2-3.
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Ardoyne didn’t give up and registered two points (one from a free) before a goal left two points between the sides with a few minutes left. Under pressure, the team stepped up and led by Anthony Rowntree, we played our way out of trouble. We held onto the ball in the oppostion half and created space for Rowntree to kick a point before Tiernan ‘Bap’ McGreevy’s strong solo run ended with him also kicking the ball over the bar and put four between the sides. There was no time for any further chances and soon after, referee Charlie Hemsworth blew the final whistle to give us the win.
