Aldergrove clinched the Division 3 league title when accounting for the Senior footballers by the minimum margin on Sunday evening at Aldergrove. We got of to a good start with points from Paul Nelson and Stephen Toner before Aldergrove got on the scoreboard from a free. We were playing nice football and controlling the game but a punted ball into the square was snapped up by the Aldergrove forward and he crashed it to the back of the net. A Paul Nelson point reduced the gap but conceding the goal knocked us out of our rthymn and we started to give possession of the ball away too easily whilst being wasteful in front of goal. Aldergrove had no problems with their shooting knocking over three unanswered point before a Ciaran O’Riordan point stopped the rot. A final Aldergrove point left the half time score 1-5 to 0-4 in their favour.
Aldergrove came out in the second half and in a ten minute spell added a further six points to extend their lead to ten points. At this stage it looked as if this was going to be a humiliating defeat but suddenly everything clicked and the players upped their efforts. A Paul Nelson goal gave us the kick start we needed and the impetus to start eating into the lead. Gary Nelson (0-1) and Paul Nelson (0-3) reduced the deficit to a goal and as we won kick out after kick out we bombarbed the Aldergrove square looking for that elusive goal. Points from Ryan Rooney and Ciaran O’Riordan left a point between the sides. The Aldergrove supporters and mentors were baying for the final whistle and it came to their rescue. If there had of been a few minutes more I have no doubt we would have gone on to win the game.
Despite the disappointment of losing the game and the opportunity of winning the league we have to take away great credit for the way we knuckled down in the second half, played football with high intensity and the belief that we had to fight back from a ten point deficit. Our next game is the Junior Football Championship Final and we know if we can maintain the level of commitment and fighting qualities that we showed in the second half we will make it very difficult for St Teresas on Friday night.
