JOHN SAVAGE
Joe Ward under their noses and cruelly snatched it away again.
The old trophy will reside at Newfoundwell for two straight seasons for the first time since 2001, elevating the current generation of Blue stars to a sphere only inhabited by Pat’s and Mattock Rangers over the intervening 17 years.
The character required to retain a championship title should never be underestimated and the fact that they had to dig so deep for victory makes this two-in-a-row feat all the more impressive.
Remarkably they didn’t score from play in the first-half and 1-5 of their tally came in the final 15 minutes as they somehow carved out the win without ever approaching anywhere near top gear.
But despite being the dominant force in the first-half, Naomh Mairtin didn’t hit the front until the 22nd minute when Conor Whelan capitalised on a brilliant bit of play by Eoghan Callaghan to make 0-3 to 0-2.
All of the big individual performances were coming from the men in dark blue at that stage, with Callaghan, Conor Healy, Sam Mulroy and Bryan McQuillan taking the game to the champions.
The Jocks duly extended their lead to 0-5 to 0-3 and while Paul Berrill’s 29th minute goal was no more than they deserved, there was a touch of fortune about it too.
The first rub came when Robbie Carr was put through one-on-one with Craig Lynch, but with what was virtually the substitute’s first touch, he couldn’t find a way past the Louth netminder.
Less than 60 seconds later, at the opposite end, Sam Mulroy burst through three Blues’ defenders to send Paul Berrill clear and the defender availed of another slice of luck when, like Carr, his strike was saved by Dean Martin, but this time the rebound landed back into Berrill’s arms and he made no mistake second time around.
Four minutes later Mulroy converted an injury-time free to prise out a six-point gap at the interval, 1-6 to 0-3.
The Blues looked to be in serious trouble at that stage, but it did seem that a lot of their troubles were of their own making.
Switching Conor Moore and Ciaran Downey just didn’t seem to work as the latter struggled to make an impact in the inside line, while Moore’s pace was wasted marking Eoghan Callaghan.
Starting Andy McDonnell on the wing and leaving him there while the