St John’s 0-17 Cushendall 1-14
A point from a free three minutes into injury time by Donal McKernan earned St John’s a share of the spoils with visitors Cushendall in Wednesday evening’s All County Hurling League Division 1 game at Corrigan Park. Less than a minute later Paddy McGill had missed the chance to give the Ruairi’s two point cushion when he sent his free from fifty metres wide of the target, but none of the Cushendall contingent will be laying the blame at McGill’s door after the full forward gave a top class display throughout the game.
With teams well understrength St John’s went ahead in the third minute with a point from full forward Peter McCallin, but McGill soon had Cushendall level with the first of a series of great frees. Corner forward Aaron Bradley put St John’s back in front with the first of his three excellent first half points, but Scott Walsh levelled again with a fine effort from long range as the rain fell heavily. McGill then gave Cushendall two point lead when he stepped up and fired a penalty past Conor Johnston in the St John’s goal but Donal McKernan cut the gap to one with another pointed free on 21 minutes.
Cushendall centre forward Emmet Laverty put two between the sides again with a point from 60 metres but another McKernan free and a superb score from the sideline by Aaron Bradly brought St John’t level with first half time almost up. There was still time for Scott Walsh and ‘Mucker’ Laverty to added points for the visitors, both of them set up by Dominic Delargy before Conall Bohill closed the gap to two with an excellent point for the home side on 33 minutes.
St John’s had the better of things in the opening minutes of the second half and Donal McKernan hit four on the trot from placed balls to ease his team into a two point lead by the 39th minute. The shoot-out between these two excellent free takers continued as McGill sent over a 65 on 43 minutes and a free on 45 to tie the scores yet again. McKernan was on target again to edge the Johnnies two ahead but two more from McGill frees gave restored parity by the 55thminute. An excellent point from the right corner by Michael Bradley just two minute from the end of normal time appeared to have put the home side in the driving seat, but great work by Ryan McCambridge created chances for McGill and substitute Aidan McNaughton to give Cushendall back the lead. When McCambridge was fouled in injury time McGill had the chance to put his team two clear, but he was off target for the first time in the game and when Donal McKernan got the chance a minute later he nailed the equaliser to send both teams home reasonably happy.
ST JOHN’S: 1. Conor Johnston, Conall Morgan, Domhnall Moran, Caoimhín Hanna, Conall Bohill, Simon McCrory, Barry McFall, Aidan McMahon, Sheá Shannon, Micheal Dudley, Michael Bradley, Donal McKernan, Aaron Bradley, Peter McCallin, Danann McKeogh
Subs; Stephen Tierney for B McFall (ht); Niall McCallin for A Bradley (55)
CUSHENDALL: Conor McAlister, David Kearney, Martin Burke, Liam Gillan, Francis McCurry, Paddy Burke, Terry McAlister, Eoghan Campbell, Scott Walsh, Dominic Delargy, Emmet Laverty, Ryan McCambridge, Alex Delargy, Paddy McGill, Ed McQuillan.
Subs – Aidan McNaughton and Eoin Laverty
Referee – Mark O’Neill (Glen Rovers)