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Result: Our Lady’s Boy’s Club 11 Creggs 9
Competition: Connacht Junior League Conference X
Creggs Team: Austin Diffley, David Donoghue, Alan Glennon, Paul Turley, Joe Heavey, Enda Muldoon, Alan Ward, Ciaran Coyne, John Leddy, Noel Flynn, Kieran Egan (Captain), Daniel Keane, Paul Bradley, Colin Looby, Thomas Lyons
Subs Used: Pat Cunningham.
Match Report: Creggs First Team lost their second league game of the season to OLBC in Galway in ideal weather conditions in the Sportsgrounds on Sunday. In terms of possession Creggs should have had the game wrapped up with 20 minutes remaining. However OLBC scored the try that proved critical with 10 minutes to go. This result will now make it very difficult for Creggs to make the play off stages of the league.
The match began with Creggs being penalised for a needless offside. The resultant kick to touch left Creggs defending 5 metres out from their own goal line. OLBC literally threw the kitchen sink at Creggs but could not score. They were awarded a penalty 20 metres which their outhalf kicked wide. This appeared to arouse Creggs and they responded with some good pressure on OLBC. With 10 minutes gone Creggs were given a penalty about 30 metres out after good approach work by Alan Glennon (showing that there is not a law against prop forwards catching the ball!). Noel Flynn duly converted the kick to leave Creggs 3 points up. Creggs continued to dominate from the restart. Again good work from Glennon and Alan Ward led to another Creggs penalty. Noel Flynn landed a superb kick to leave the score OLBC 0 Creggs 6 after 20 minutes. However despite a monopoly on possession, good breaks from Tom Lyons, a sweet chip ahead from John Leddy and excellent defensive covering from Alan Ward OLBC managed to kick two penalties to draw level by halftime. The second penalty was a cracker from the half way line by the OLBC outhalf. Creggs threw Pat Cunningham into the fray for the second half. Again Creggs literally owned the ball for the first 20 minutes but could not cross the try line of OLBC. They mounted attack after attack but despite great effort Creggs just had not the control or cohesion to crack the opposing defence. Finally after 25 minutes Noel Flynn landed a monster of a kick to give Creggs a 3 point lead.
From the restart Creggs failed to deal with the kick and this led to OLBC launching a sustained attack. This resulted in their prop forward scoring a try that was not converted. This score gave OLBC great heart and they were unlucky to see a penalty go wide on the stroke of full time. Then with the score still at OLBC 11 Creggs 9 and with 6 minutes of injury time gone Creggs rallied for what was surely the last throw of the dice. The Creggs forwards retained possession time and time again to bring their team upfield. Then a late tackle on Creggs fullback Tom Lyons after his clever kick ahead yielded a penalty to Creggs some 30 metres out. One could almost hear the music of the great escape as Noel Flynn stepped up to take the kick. However his kick drifted agonisingly wide of the far post to leave OLBC victorious by 2 points.