NORTHERN SWITCHGEAR SFC
Group Three
St Gall's 2-23
St Ergnat's, Moneyglass 1-14
Maghnus Dunne at Milltown
THE men from Milltown enjoyed a boost to their hopes of Championship knockout football after they managed to avoid a potential banana skin against Moneyglass on Friday evening.
Despite Bairre McCaffrey's opening point, the hosts endured a rocky opening ten minutes which saw Moneyglass take the early lead and looked to cause the first upset of the Senior Championship.
Scores from Sean Boyd, Caolan Boyd and Colm Duffin looked to be giving the 19-time winners real food for thought and when Seanchan Duffin's terrific two-pointer struck perfectly between the posts the reality set in.
Eventually the hosts rallied and a score from Callum Walsh saw them break an six-minute spell without a point, before Marty Murray's right-footed effort for a point seemed to drop perfectly short and land in the top-corner of the net to bring St Gall's back on level terms with their opponents.
The next ten minutes saw a tit-for-tat affair with neither side pulling away from the other as scores from Tiernan McCormick and Danny Quinn proved to be the pick of the bunch for both sides with St Gall's finding joy through their talismen Quinn and McCaffrey, who hit a second score of the contest and the away side raising white flags thanks to Boyd and Duffin.
St Gall's began to find their rhythm and were prolific in over-turning the pass in Moneyglass territory and should have found the net on a number of occasions but their final effort or pass proved misplaced.
A quick-fire double from Danny Quinn and the evergreen Mickey Pollock gave St Gall's the lead on the quarter-hour mark, before Callum Walsh drilled a phenomenal effort which curved inside the upright for an orange flag and put his side firmly in the driving seat of the tie.
Gerard O'Neill's strike was followed up by Niall Burn's finding his first and second scores of the Championship.
A fantastic St Gall's team-move led by Aodhan Gallagher and dispatched by McCaffrey allowed them to continue improving their sides tally, and Moneyglass found little to no answer to the wave after wave of attack.
Eventually Moneyglass found themselves back with a shot at over-turning the deficit when Sean Boyd's driving run saw him one-on-one with Chris Kerr.
The St Gall's shot-stopper was quick with his reflexes and made a point-blank save to deny a goal for Boyd, and moments prior Moneyglass struck the post after Colm Duffin's effort dragged to the left.
Tiernan McCormack's 45 saw to it that Moneyglass would end the half with the scoring momentum but St Gall's led despite their inefficiencies in the shooting department.
The second-period was a rather slow start, but the away side breathed renewed belief with Aidan McErlain striking the opening score of the half, but a brace from Danny Quinn allowed that hope to vanquish pretty quickly.
Barry McCaffrey tallied another point before managing to retrieve the ball from Callum Walsh's counter-attack burst and McCaffrey slotted the ball underneath Gribbon's feet for a second St Gall's goal.
The next score was another major, this time proving the tie was not dead yet as Conleth McCann aided of a huge slice of luck to beat Chris Kerr in the hosts net.
McCann's powerful strike was seemingly intercepted by half-back Conor Ryan but the power proved too much and deflected into the net for a Moneyglass goal.
Momentum continued with the hosts and Danny Quinn tallied another shortly after and when Pollock struck a vintage score and Walsh found another point the goal was erased within minutes of hitting the net.
St Gall's continued to thrive and tallied another few scores from Quinn before Niall Burns crisply struck his third score of the night just before the full-time whistle.
St Gall's XV: C Kerr; E Walsh, G Adams, A McDonagh; G O'Neill 0-2, E McCabe, C Ryan; M McCrossan, A Gallagher; C Walsh 0-4 (1xTP), D Quinn 0-8 (2F), M Murray 1-0; B McCaffrey 1-4, N Burns 0-2, M Pollock 0-3
Subs: D Wilson on for M Murray (37'), N Fallon on for M Pollock (50'), P Ó Muirigh on for B McCaffrey (50'), C Doherty on for C Walsh (54')
Moneyglass XV: R Gribbon; C Murray, Z McCaughan, J McCormack; S Boyd 0-3, F Duffin, C McCann 1-0; T McCormack 0-5, S Duffin 0-2 (1xTP); O Duffin, A McErlain 0-1, C Boyd 0-1; T Cassidy, C Duffin 0-2 (1F), D McErlain
Subs: E McGrath on for T Cassidy (41'), C O'Kane on for O Duffin (43'), R Taggart on for D McErlain (55')
