Match Report

ACFL Div 3 Series 14

In the derby battle in Div 3, Saul again lost out to neighbours Ardglass on Friday night in a game that showed little in terms of the finer points of Gaelic Footballing skills. In the reverse fixtures of the opening day games, St Patricks Park saw a large crowd gathered and the visitors, who have been enjoying a rich vein of form, started the brightest of the 2 teams. With Saul's defense settling into the pace of the game, Ardglass took advantage and plundered an early goal. As so often this year, it took the driving influence of midfielder Adam King to provide Saul's first score and 2 further points from Paul Ferris responded to by 2 Ardglass converted frees left Saul trailing by 2 points after a low scoring half - Saul 0-3 Ardglass 1-2

On the restart, the accurate boot of the visitor's Michael Magee from a 50yd free immediately extended their lead. Even though, Saul were on top in terms of possession, thanks to the midfield strength of King and McKInlay, scoring opportunites were proving hard to find but great work from Callum Laverty set up half-back Aodhan Brady for a great Saul score only for Magee to slot over a softly gained free at the other end minutes later to retain their 3 point lead. Saul's territorial advantage was starting to pay off as the game entered a critical phase. With the space of 3 minutes, Saul closed the gap to the minimum. When Matthew Carson was fouled, Nathan Keenan hoisted over a huge score and then great team work all the way from deep in the Saul backline from Greg Holland to King through a Ryan Burns solo burst and offload to Keenan saw the score of the game on 10 minutes. A Kearney point from play kept Ardglass just out of immediate reach before visiting midfielder Magee saw red for a heavy 'tackle' on Adam King. However the expected swing of the game in Saul's favour didn't materialise as Ardglass's 14 men upped their game and Saul lost the inspirational lead of King as he was forced to limp off as a result of injuries sustained. The visitors maintained possession to run the clock down and for a full 10 minutes, scoring chances were few and far between with the visitors having the majority of the play. With 3 minutes remaining, substitutes Chris Laverty and Philip Trainor combined for Trainor to cut inside and fire over to close the gap to the minimum again only for Ardglass to immediately respond through a long range effort from Telford. As Saul pressed looking for a winning goal as the game entered injury time, a rapid break from the Ardglass defence, combined with a slip in defence allowed Kearney possession in front of goal and he made no mistake with a left foot finish to the net to seal the win and close out on the game. Final Score Saul 0-7; Ardglass 2-6. For long periods of this game, Saul will be happy that they dominated possession but will want to work on turning that into scoring chances before the trip to Glenn next Friday.

Return to Senior Page