Naomh Gall GAA

St Galls u16 hurlers made it a hat trick of victories over the Ards peninsula sides on Sunday with a 6.13 to 3 points victory over Ballycran at Milltown. 2.02 from captain Conor Burke in the first 6 minutes of the second half nailed the coffin firmly closed on the Down side and signalled the beginning of a landslide for the visitors who, to that point, had been fairly resilient against their hosts.

In reality once Cormac Bradley, Jackson McGreevey, James Gallagher and Mark Napier found their feet after twenty minutes it was always a matter of damage limitation for Ballycran. Mark McAreavey single handedly kept Ballycran at bay while Lewis Donnelly and Ruairi Wilson were first to every loose ball and set up numerous attacks. But the St Galls front men were misfiring with almost every attack in the first twenty minutes.

Then on 21 mins Mark Napier’s solo effort resulted in a great goal and gave the home side the kick start they needed. Burkey, Jackson and Ryan Hickland began to find their range and St Galls went into the break at 2.06 to 2 points in front.On the restart Sean Og McCallum tortured the Ballycran corner back and set up Burkey at every opportunity. From then on in it was all too easy and not exactly the type of game this team needs 8 days before championship. On Monday 31 May the championship kicks off with a home tie against St Agnes at 6.30pm. On paper the game would appear to be a formality since St Agnes’ failed to score against St Galls in the league last month – but this panel are still hurting from a championship final loss last year when, after beating St Theresas by 18 points in the league, they then went on to lose to the same opponents by one point in a championship final.