7th July 2006 - County Junior Football League Division 2 Round 7 in Sneem

St. Mary's 1-06 V 1-09 Sneem

St. Mary’s Juniors had a hard luck story in their final group game of the County League in Sneem on Friday night. After leading at the break 1-3 to 0-3, thanks to a Kevin Keane goal after 4 minutes, the home side rallied on in the second half and stole victory in the final 3 minutes with a goal. The home side will have BJ Regan to thank for the victory with 6 points from 1-9 and 2 assists.

Played in ideal conditions Sneem were first to strike when Regan secured two points as a result of their first two attacks. St. Mary’s cancelled this out a minute later when a brilliant Brian Curran run on the left wing presented Kevin Keane with a simple tap in to give his side the lead. St. Mary’s went on to add three points without reply from Seamus Fitzgerald (2 frees) and Michael O’Shea while Sneem only managed their third point after 26 minutes from Jimmy O’Brien. Kevin Keane had a chance to double his tally when he found himself in a great goal scoring opportunity but this time it proved a step too far as the ball spun to the right and wide. Seamus Fitzgerald added his third point just before the break to leave the half time score at 1-4 v 0-3.

Sneem made a dramatic comeback at the beginning of the second half when their first four attacks inside the opening 6 minutes all lead to points with BJ Regan getting 3 and Kieran Burns with the other to level the game. Good work between Sean Cournane and Vinny Moriarty lead to another Seamus Fitzgerlad score but this was cancelled out 2 minutes later with Regans fifth point of the night. With time nearly up substitute Alan Clifford put the Mary’s ahead by a point and the game looked secure at the visitors went denfensive and looked to hold onto the ball. However numerous mistakes at vital times with normal time up let Sneem in for a goal and went ahead by two points and dashed the Mary’s hopes of securing top spot in the Division 2 of the County Junior League while Regan made sure of it with another point to leave the final score St. Mary’s 1-6 Sneem 1-9.

St. Mary’s will now advance to play Gneeveguilla in the semi-final of the Junior League on Friday night next in Killorglin @ 7:30 while Sneem will play Spa in Templenoe on the same night.