Mattock Rangers St Bride’s
TWO of the intermediate grade’s heaviest hitters couldn’t be separated in Ardee on Saturday night, but a share of the spoils meant very different things to St Bride’s and Mattock Rangers.
A point was enough to send the Bride’s through to the quarter-finals, most likely as group winners, but for Mattock it was only slightly more beneficial than a defeat.
The Collon men will take heart from battling back with 14 men to force the draw, but unless they can better the Bride’s five-point win over the Clans this weekend, runners-up spot in the group is looking like their best-case scenario.
That clash is essentially a winner-takes-all showdown now, albeit with Mattock enjoying the safety net of another draw being sufficient to send them through.
For St Bride’s, emerging from what was a nightmare group will be deeply satisfying and for about 40 minutes of this game they looked a lot like Intermediate champions elect.
Mattock were probably fortunate enough to adjourn at the break just two points in arrears, 0-5 to 0-3, as large chunks of the opening half were played in their defensive third.
While Clan Na Gael shipped a lot of criticism for their display against the Knockbridge outfit a week earlier, perhaps St Bride’s weren’t given enough credit.
With Aaron Hoey prowling around the middle third alongside the in-form Patrick Reilly and Conor Deane, the Bride’s dominated the midfield exchanges, and from there the territorial battle.
Louth under-20 attacker Sean Marry is a real handful up front and he was very ably supported by Kevin Hearty and Ciaran Deane.
In gernal St Bride’s handling, support play and transitions from defence to attack were spot on, but if they were guilty of anything in that first 40 minutes it was poor shot selection and a tendency to over-elaborate at others.
But they were the better team as they slowly built up that two-point half-time cushion, with Hoey, Ciaran Deane, Marry and Hearty on target from play and goalkeeper Conal Devin converting a closerange free.
David Reid opened Mattock’s account with a free and their other two scores of the half came courtesy of county panellist Aaron O’Brien.