FRIENDLY
Antrim Colts 5-3 St Mary’s
St Mary’s travelled to the Antrim Forum on Saturday for a friendly game with East Antrim side Antrim Colts. With the Colts riding high at the top of their league this season with 17 victories from 19 games, it always had the makings of a hard contest with St Mary’s hoping to give some game time to squad members.
For St Mary’s, there was a return for Aidan Quinn in goals while Cathal McGarrity partnered Eoin O’Reilly up front with regular partner Jack Parke having recently had a spell in hospital to have his appendix removed.
St Mary’s made dream start and went in from after twelve minutes when O’Reilly played a pass out wide to Eoin McNicholl. McNicholl’s close control was neat and he strode forward before unleashing an unstoppable shoot into the roof of the net.
With St Mary’s dictating the pace of the game, Patrick Ross nodded a McNicholl corner kick home to increase their lead. The Colts were jolted by the second St Mary’s goal but pulled a goal back on twenty minutes and levelled the game barely a minute later. And with their tails now up and the St Mary’s defence all over the show, Antrim Colts added a further two goals before the break with St Mary’s unable to clear their lines.
St Mary’s took to the field for the second period with their ears ringing and toughed up at the back with Peter Morgan and Aidan Begley finally getting to grips with the tall Colts strike force.
Cormac Morgan was having a good game for St Mary’s down the left hand side and was dangerous throughout the second period as manager McNulty made a change with Christopher Flannigan adding some pace up front.
Eoin McNicholl pulled a goal back for St Mary’s but Antrim Colts added another as time eventually run out.
Overall it was good for the boys to get some more game time but lapses in defence will need to be ironed out if St Marys’ ambitions to make it all the way to the league cup final stage this season are to be realised.
