Darkness in Bellefield
ABANDONED AFTER 13 MINS THE LIGHTS went out on this St. Martin’s versus Starlights Greenstar Under-21 football Premier championship preliminary round clash after just 13 minutes in Bellefield on Saturday, leading to the game being abandoned.
The lights failure brought the game to a premature end, with referee Brendan Martin being unable to continue.
Given that the same thing had occurred in the lead up to the warm-up, it came as no real surprise when the ground descended into darkness again as St. Martin’s were about to launch yet another attack.
At the the time of the premature finish, St. Martin’s had raced into a six-point lead (2-2 to 0-2), with the goals through a Barry O’Connor lobbing free and Darren Codd, while O’Connor (free) and Joe Coleman tagged on the points.
Those scores came after Starlights had raced into an early two-point lead through Aaron Dobbs (free) and Dayle Donohoe.
Now the sides must do it all over again - in the daylight at the same venue at 2 p.m. on Saturday - to decide who goes through to the respective ‘A’ and ‘B’ quarter-finals. HWH-Bunclody and Crossabeg-Ballymurn patiently await the outcome.
St. Martin’s: Nicky Greene; Mikey Coleman, Philip Dempsey, Eoin O’Leary; Conor Firman, Aaron Maddock, Harry O’Connor; Ben Maddock, Joe O’Connor; Michael Codd, Joe Coleman (0-1), Jake Firman; Conor Coleman, Barry O’Connor (1-1 frees), Darren Codd (1-0).
Starlights: Dylan Cloke; Declan Courtney, Ben Edwards, Gary Murphy; Ronan Kirwan, Dillon Redmond, Ryan Hadley; Aaron Dobbs (0-1 free), Ryan Mahon; John Murphy, Dayle Donohoe (0-1), Dylan McVeigh; Diarmuid Byrne, Tyler O’Connor, Anthony Murphy.
Referee: Brendan Martin (Ballyhogue).