Having fallen to single goal defeats in recent weeks to both Rosario and Crusaders, St Mary’s were left with nothing but pride to play for at Blanchflower against Sporting Cromac in their final league fixture on Saturday with a third place finish in the division one table already secured.
St Mary’s lost talisman Matty Shannon with a toe injury leading up to the game and had several other players soldiering on with various niggles but to focus on the negatives would have been doing Sporting Cromac a discredit as they took the game to St Mary’s from the first whistle, hassling and harrying their Glengormley opponents all over the pitch.
Cromac’s tactic in getting the ball forward route one to their pacy front pairing had the St Mary’s backline stretched and a goal to the good up after only seven minutes. But St Mary’s hit back almost immediately when Jack Parke picked up a loose ball in the middle of the pitch before slipping a pass through to Eoin McNicholl. Wide man McNicholl’s cross was precise and landed the ball at the feet of Eoin O’Reilly who side stepped the onrushing goalie to level the scores.
But a lethargic looking St Mary’s took nothing from drawing level and conceded possession all to easily with Sporting Cromac dominating the game in most areas of the pitch and forging ahead effortlessly to the half time break with a further three goals. Indeed, only for several top notch stops from St Mary’s goalie Oliver Breen, this tie could have been done and dusted by half time.
Coach McNulty, assisted by McDaid and Quinn issued her charges with some stern words at the half time break to try and awake her team from their slumber.
The players appeared to heed their coaches warning and started to perform more like a team rather than individuals and fastened several early chances as they enjoyed their best spell of the game with the Mark Davey, Conor Bannon, Jack Parke and Eoin McNicholl getting a grip on the midfield aided by Aidan Begley and Patrick Ross in the central defensive positions.
With ten second half minutes on the clock, St Mary’s hauled themselves back into the game when a super through ball from Morgan released Eoin O’Reilly. But O’Reilly’s touch was heavy and the ball was hacked away, landing at the feet of Conor Bannon who looked up and returned the ball with interest by thumping it into the roof of the Sporting Cromac net.
But St Mary’s joy was short lived as five minutes later, Cromac added a further score to their tally. Despite an initial super save from Oliver Breen, the ball wasn’t properly cleared and St Mary’s looked dead and buried at this point.
Aidan Quinn replaced Eoin Lundy who had put a decent shift in up front for St Mary’s but by now the pressure was beginning to tell on the over worked St Mary’s defence with Cromac netting a sixth and seventh goal in between Breen splendidly pushing way a penalty kick.
St Mary’s finished the game with chances, with Eoin O’Reilly failing to convert a 1-on-1 and Mark Davey having an effort well saved. But the best was nearly kept for the last when in time added on, full back Oisin Donaghy nearly got his name on the score sheet when he crashed an effort off the outside of the post with the Cromac goalie rooted to the spot
Man of Match – Oliver Breen (St Mary’s)
