St Patrick’s minors hosted Dunloy on Tuesday night in a top of the table clash. The poor weather meant that with Kirkwoods Park declared nplayable the game was hastily moved to Twinbrook. Both teams went into the game aware that victory would set up a winner take all clash against St Endas and defeat would end any aspirations of lifting the league title. Lisburn started much the brighter and opened the scoring in the opening minute through the left foot (yes the LEFT foot) of half-back Ben McMullan. Points quickly followed from Declan Dillon , Mark Kearney and Paul Anderson within five minutes of the throw in. On their first attack however Dunloy created a scoring opportunity and their mobile full forward beat keeper Darren McCrory with a low driven shot. The Lisburn lads reacted in style with a flowing move ending with Kearney driving home to reinstate the four point lead. From the resulting kick out half-forward Josh McMullan collected the breaking ball from Parker and sent a point over the bar. Lisburn were rampant now with chances after chance created by their running game from all sides of the field. midfielder Kevin Parker ended a strong run by crashing a shot off the bar with Peter Casey scoring a goal from the rebound. Casey then followed this up with a long range point. The Dunloy back line had no answer to the flowing football from Lisburn and were conceding free kicks along the forty five in an attempt to stop the locals from extending their lead. Parker converted a point from a quickly taken free and a further 2 points from Dillon and one from Anderson gave Lisburn a 14 point lead going into half time. Right on the stroke of half time a lack of concentration in the back line gave Dunloy another goalscoring opportunity which they converted with relish to leave it 2-11 to 2-0 at the break. Dunloy started the second half with a point to prove and scored the first two points of the half and instill a belief that just maybe a comeback was on the cards. However as they have done all season the locals responded with a professional and determined performance. Anderson converted another free and then Casey picked up a loose pass from Dunloy and travelled for 40 metres before slotting over the point of the game.On the next attack Casey found himself in front of a gaping goal and planted the ball firmly in the net. Kearney punched in another goal shortly afterwards to end any faint hopes Dunloy had of overturning the half-time deficit. Final score was St Patricks 4-13 ;Dunloy 2-2.Scorers for Lisburn were Peter Casey 2-2; Mark Kearney 2-1; Paul Anderson 0-4; Declan Dillon 0-3; with Kevin Parker and brothers Ben and Josh McMullan contributing one point each. Ina agame which was played so much in the Dunloy half ,Peter Casey came away with the Man of the Match award not only for his scoring exploits but also his link up play and scoring assists. Next Tuesday night at St Endas of Glengormley is the date with destiny for the minors as they attempt to win the clubs first minor trophy ever.
NOT SO!!! St Patrick’s minors won the divison 2 league title in 1976. They were managed by the late Gerry Marshall, father of your club secretary Barry. The team won every league match that year with home games played on the old club ground at the bottom of McCormick’s Lane off the Causewayend Road (now the entrance to Sandown Park). That team included players like Sean Eastwood, (brother of Tyrone), Dessie O’Neill, Stephen Agnew, (father of Patrick), the late Damien Brogan, Peter Mulholland Dominic Gorman, Patrick Morgan and Kevin Drayne. Good luck to the current squad and may you add to the minor silverware.
Many thanks for the clarification Nagaho, unfortunately the current Minor team were pipped at the post losing out by a point against St Endas, so on to next season.