The Senior Footballers were made to battle all the way in this Junior Football Championship semi-final at St Paul’s. Eire Og started brightly as they opened their account with an accurate free from 35 yards before adding a second, this time quick thinking as a  free was quickly fed to the full forward and he calmly slotted it between the posts. We responded with a Paul Nelson free before a Ciaran O’Riordan long distance effort brought the sides level.
This gave us the impetus and further points from Sean O’Neill and Gary Nelson edged us into the lead but Eire Og replied with a brace of points to level before the best point of the half. Anto McGrattan took possession of the ball raced past his marker and fired a fierce left footed drive over the bar to leave us a point to the good at half time.
We started the second half spiritely reeling over four unanswered points, three Paul Nelson frees and Anto McGrattan’s second of the game. At this stage we should have gone on to close the game off but Eire Og replied with two points to leave a goal between us. As time ebbed away Anto McGrattan got his third point to extend the lead to four. An Eire Og free brought the gap back to three to make the last five minutes a thrilling finish. Anto McGrattan’s  fourth point saw us restore the four point gap and while Eire Og fired over the last point of the game we ended victorious by a goal.
All credit to Eire Og, they made it difficult for us and they never allowed us to settle on the ball and play free flowing football. We now progress to the Junior Final on 9 October where we will come up against a very good St Teresas side. On the basis of their semi-final demolition of Ballycastle they will go into the final as favourites and we will have to up our performance if we want to claim the silverware.
