St. James (Aldergrove) 1-10 Rockcorry 0-10

Ulster Club Football League ( Sunday 21^st February 2010)

Team: Jamie Smith, Colin Reilly, Garry Calvert, Rory Carroll, Stephen McGuirk, Noel Carroll, Ryan Sharkey, Martin Carroll, Liam Connolly, Keelan Clerkin, Colin Quinn, Conor McGeough, Dwayne Rooney (0-8), Paul McKeown (0-2), and Niall McKeown. Subs Damien Matthews for Ryan Sharkey, Anthony Tate for Conor McGeough, Cathal Sheridan for Colin Quinn, Colin Quinn for Rory Carroll.

We played our third game of the Ulster club league competition on Sunday 21^st February when we travelled to Belfast to play St. James GAC (Aldergrove).  The game was played in ideal conditions and St. James opened the scoring in the first minute when they won possession from the throw-up and went on the attack instantly and notched over a fine point from play. They doubled their lead two minutes later when they notched over a free kick after Ryan Sharkey committed a foul on the 21m line. St. James increased their lead when they taped over consecutive points in the 5^th and 6^th minute to put the men from Crumlin four points to the good. At this stage of the game St. James were dictating the pace and were walking right through us. Our defending was horrendous and some players were all over the place. Our marking was loose and we simply did not track back enough to prevent the overlap.

Our first attack into St. James territory was promising but a frontal challenge, or assault, on Martin Carroll should off been a free in but the referee continued with play and we lost possession and a possible scoring opportunity missed. Our first score came in the 10^th minute when Paul McKeown was fouled and Dwayne Rooney’s under-hit attempt at the posts fell short, however, our forwards were able to keep the ball in play and it was recycled back to Dwayne, who made no mistake the second time, and fired over a good point from play.  Two minutes later Colin Quinn won the breaking ball from the kick-out and off-loaded to Stephen McGuirk who produced a wonderfully measured pass into Niall McKeown and he laid off a pass for Dwayne Rooney and showing great composure curled a fine point over the bar to close the deficit to 0-2 points.

St. James widened the gap in the 12^th minute when they rifled over a free after their player was sandwiched between Rory Carroll and Colin Reilly and they could off went further ahead minutes later only for the courageous and impressive defending by Garry Calvert who blocked down a number of shooting attempts. Our defence at this stage was under severe pressure and team management made a change in the 15^th minute when they introduced Damien Matthews for Ryan Sharkey. Garry Calvert was called into action moments later and with the support of Stephen McGuirk and Liam Connolly surrounded a St. James player, along the line, and he was blew for over carrying. Stephen took the free quickly and sent a direct pass into Niall McKeown who found Dwayne Rooney and what appeared to be a very good point was flagged wide by the umpires!!!

We wasted three good chances through hasty shooting, between the 24^th and 28^th minutes, two from the boot of Dwayne Rooney and one from Colin Quinn. With minutes remaining of the first half St. James fired over two free kicks when Colin Quinn and Martin Carroll committed fouls. We were fortunate not to concede a goal shortly afterwards when a St. James player had the opportunity to fist the ball into an empty goalmouth but luckily the ball went over the crossbar to leave the score at the interval St. James 0-8 Rockcorry 0-2.

Like the first half, St. James got off to the perfect start when they scored a magnificent point directly from the throw-up. We responded immediately and came close to scoring a goal when Anthony Tate lobbed a high ball into the St. James goal mouth and Dwayne Rooney’s fisted attempt was just wide. Paul McKeown efforts were rewarded in the 5^th minute when he single handily put pressure on the St. James defenders by not allowing them to get out easy and he won a free kick which Dwayne Rooney duly sent over the bar. Two minutes later Paul was in the thick of the action again and when he was fouled after making a solo run Dwayne Rooney stepped up and scored the free to leave the score 0-9 to 0-4. However, St. James extended their lead in the 12^th minute when they scored a fine point from play after a swift move up the field to open up a 0-6 point margin.

We closed the deficit in the 14^th minute when Noel Carroll sent a long hit and hope ball into our full forward line that was broken down by Liam Connolly and Niall McKeown was quickest to react and pounced on the breaking ball and was fouled in the process and Dwayne Rooney sailed the free kick over the bar. Further frees in the 16^th and 24^th minute were converted by Dwayne when Paul McKeown was fouled on both occasions to leave the score 0-10 to 0-7.  St. James kicked two wides before we notched over a point by Paul McKeown after some fluent and skillful interaction between Keelan Clerkin, Cathal Sheridan and Noel Carroll to narrow the deficit to just 0-2 points and the come back was on!

With five minutes to full time we appeared rejuvenated and the lads started to believe they could actually win and pull this game from the fire and attempted to wipe out the two point lead. However, that was not to be case. The killer blow came in the 29^th minute when after a defensive error a St. James player seized the attacking initiative and lobbed our goalie Jamie Smith and despite his best efforts to prevent the ball crossing the line he was unsuccessful. Two points,  in injury time, one from a Dwayne Rooney free kick and the other from Paul McKeown, was not enough and St. James went on to win the game on a scoreline St. James 1-10 Rockcorry 0-10.

Even though we lost by a goal, it was a good turnout. To be fair our first half performance was very poor, we were guilty of some very bad passing and we gave away possession far too easy. However, the lads showed good team spirit and character in the second half and on occasions produced some good passages of football.