Our senior footballers played St Michael’s at home on Friday evening. Aghaderg were facing into a strong breeze in the first half which was always going to make scoring difficult for the home side. St Michael’s opened the scoring with a point but such was the work-rate of the Aghaderg players all over the field that the visiting team would not score again until the 26th minute. Anytime St Michael’s came forward, the Aghaderg back line were quick off the mark with interceptions and good aggressive tackling. Ruairi O’Neill in particular was seeing plenty of action on his side of the pitch but always seemed to come out on top, linking up with the Aghaderg half-back line and midfield to move the ball back up the field. Although difficult to score into the strong breeze, Joe O’Kane seemed to have his shooting boots on, scoring four points in the first half with another point added by Niall Lennon.
Aghaderg were happy to go in at half-time on a scoreline of 0-5 Vs 0-2.
The three point margin at half time did not fully reflect Aghaderg’s strong performance but their rewards were to come quickly in the second half. Michael Fitzpatrick finished a surging run by popping the ball over the top to Rory Simpson who calmly slotted it into the St Michael’s net. Chrissy McEvoy added two quick points before Aghaderg’s second goal which came from some good direct play. Paul Prior took his mark in midfield from a Kick-out and after spotting Rory Simpson making a clever run in the full forward line sent a long ball in which Rory collected and despatched into the St Michael’s net for his second goal. With Aghaderg now into a commanding lead, St Michael’s tried hard to get back into the game but Paul Prior and Louis Murray were dominating the middle of the field and the Aghaderg half-back line were also pushing up to keep St Michael’s under pressure. With the wind at their backs, the home side enjoyed a good spell of play with further points added by Joe O’Kane, Niall Lennon, Kelin Doyle, Michael Fitzpatrick and Chrissy McEvoy to end the game on a scoreline of 2-16 Vs 0-3.
The second half of the league campaign will undoubtedly bring tougher challenges but the performance on Friday night makes it six wins out of six and leaves the boys facing into upcoming games with confidence.