St Marys 2-16 Nobber 2-12

St Marys came away from Syddan with a hard fought victory over Nobber on Thursday evening.

Some of the pre match talk centred around the Marys being outsiders heading into the game against a seasoned Junior A side in Nobber, which may have been deserved given the first half performance last day out against Ballinlough. From the start though, Marys were in no mood to go along with the narrative. The opening quarter of the game was played at a ferocious pace by the Donore/Rosnaree men, pressing hard and turning over the opposition at every opportunity.

They raced into an early lead, with Daire Victory, Andrew Brien and Caimin Hughes with a 2 pointer to the fore. Nobber were struggling to gain primary possession but in Sean Meade they had a player who was always going to keep them in the game. His battle with AJ Bradshaw was one of the interesting sub plots to the game, and he scored a goal against the run of the play in the opening half to keep his side in touch. Dale Larkin kept his side in contention from  placed balls, while Mark Condra and Gustas Pocevicius were proving more than a handful around the middle of the field. Marys were responding to the threats posed in kind though, Brien adding more scores from play and frees, with Daire Victory tagging on two more scores before his brother Cormac found the net with a great finish low to the bottom left corner, fashioning a goal chance when a point looked the more likely option at first. Dylan Bagnall and Hughes with a 2 added more scores to round out the half and Marys went in 1-11 to 1-6 in front.

Although they were ahead, Marys knew that the second half was going to feel longer than 30 mins, with a resurgent Nobber looking to claw into the lead. From the throw in, Gustas found himself through on goal, only to be denied by an excellent Adam Byrne save down low and Marys got the danger away. Knowing that they would need a score to keep Nobber at arms length, they duly obliged, with an outrageous 2 from Hughes from about 45 metres out, a 45 from Brien and a Daire Victory goal, dancing around several defenders before cooly slotting into the far corner to put Marys 8 up again. Nobber came roaring back, and dominated the next 10 mins of the game, culminating in a penalty kick. Meade blazed over the bar to reduce the deficit before a second goal of the game after pressure on the Marys defence brought the lead back to 3 points. Marys had to dig in at this point, and every man stood up and done so.

The work rate all over the pitch by every man was immense, and despite the pressure on their goal and around every kickout and breaking ball, the constant battling for every single ball meant that Nobber were only able to double their 1-6 first half tally. This was typified none more so than corner back Andy Everard winning a 40 metre dash to claim a ball at the sideline having started the run behind his opponent Jojo Ogunbe. Marys needed an insurance score to see the game out, and this arrived as the game crept into added time, and who else but Brien to seal the win by winning the ball in front and despite being fouled was able to kick it between the posts to mark another exceptional performance by the Marys 13. The full time whistle blew, and Marys were able to mark their first win at Junior A level since a win over Kildalkey in November 2008.

They march on to a massive game against Moylagh now in Round 3, knowing that nothing will but a win will suffice if they are to progress any further in the Championship.

St Marys: Adam Byrne; Andrew Everard, Liam Lynch, Conor O’Brien; Adam Craven, AJ Bradshaw, Dylan Bagnall 0-1; Joey Greene, Tadhg Dixon; Ben Loughran, Cormac Victory 1-0, Caimin Hughes 0-6; Andrew Brien 0-6, Sean Nulty, Daire Victory 1-3.
Subs: James Lynch for Nulty, Cathal Sheridan for C Victory, Dylan Craig for O’Brien, Callum Reilly for Everard. Liam O’Neill Sheridan, Kyle McKeown, Ruairi Condra, Neil Floyd, Robbie Callaghan, Peter Waters

Referee: Liam Reddy

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