St Brides hold off a late Rovers’ fightback

ST BRIDES HUNTERSTOWN ROVERS 2-12 1-14

ST Brides held off a late comeback from Hunterstown Rovers to win by the narrowest of margins on Saturday night to remain top of the Division 2 League with one game left to play.

Although the home side started the better with two early points, St Brides responded and levelled matters by the 11th minute.

They edged ahead with scores from Ross Kehoe, Aaron Hoey and Kevin Hearty.

However, Hunterstown replied to leave the game a draw on 20 minutes, five points each, before both teams exchanged two points apiece just before half time to leave it all square at the interval.

After the restart the hosts were quickest out of the blocks and were sitting comfortably holding a two point lead before the game’s first goal came in the 37th minute.

An Aaron Hoey free kick appeared to be going just wide but dropped short.

Somehow it was kept in play by Patrick Reilly and Shane Devin fisted to the net to give St. Brides a one point lead, much against the run of play.

The visitors moved up a gear after this and tagged on two more points.

Hunstertown responded in style with two well taken points before Kevin Hearty settled his side when he dissected the posts.

The table Toppers found the net again on 55 minutes, this time from the fist of Emmet Kirk, which was soon followed up by a point from Sean Brennan leaving a six point gap, and a mountain for Hunterstown to climb, with time almost up.

However, there was still time for Hunterstown to score 1-2 in the five minutes of additional time thanks to a Paul Carrie goal leaving St. Brides defending nervously before the final whistle sounded. ST Kevins continued their good run on form to maintain their play-off hopes.

The visitors got off to the perfect start when Lee Crosbie struck the opening goal of the game inside five minutes. Cian Callan followed up with a second goal soon after to put his side in control.

However, the Westerns showed good battling qualities and got back into the game with a goal of their own as they went in at the break trailing by just 2-7 to 1-6.

The home side continued their revival after the break and the game was back in the balance when they reduced the deficit to one point.

They were unable to complete the comeback as the Kevins composed themselves and dominated the final ten minutes to pull away from their opponents with Andrew Campbell scoring a third goal.