White’s Cross, short so many players though injury, travelled to Douglas on Sunday morning to take on the locals and reigning City Division Champions in the third round of the Junior Football League. This is always a tough test but, with so many absent, the task was even more daunting. This was laid bare in the opening 20 seconds when the home side opened the scoring with their first attack. They added another a minute later. However, White’s Cross soon settled and the story of the game began to unfold; not one of total Douglas dominance but rather of them being much more efficient when they got scoring chances while White’s Cross, who had as many chances over the hour, were wasteful in front of goal. And so, there were three wides before Conor Buckley got an equalizing free in the 11th minute.
The game turned in the 15th minute when the home side’s lively corner forward cut through the White’s Cross rearguard to give Rory Teehan no chance. To emphasise their efficiency, they added three points in the next three attacks and they were now six points ahead. This was the winning of the game. John McElhinney got the only score from play for the away side in the half as Douglas added two more to leave the score at half-time; 1-07 to 0-03.
The second half began as the first had with Douglas scoring within 20 seconds. The remainder of the game was even in terms of scoring but White’s Cross were again more wasteful. Ronan Healy was very lively when he came on and added two points from play in the half. The Mullins’ brothers, Luke and Michael, also impressed on their first full games at this level. These were some of the positive to be taken from a second half that petered-out to its inevitable conclusion. Now that the evenings are long, the team will be training on the full pitch and will have opportunities to work on their shooting and forward play which will hopefully reap dividends as the season progresses.
TEAM: Rory Teehan, Senan Ryan, Barry Prendergast, Luke Murphy , Aidan Docherty, Gearoid Fleming, Luke Mullins, PJ O’Donovan (0-01) , Dylan Burke ,Fiachra O’Connell, Conor Buckley (0-04, 3 frees), Bobby O’Riordan ,Patrick Harrington ,John McElhinney (0-03, 1 free) ,Daniel Kelleher SUBS:
Ronan Healy (0-02), Michael Mullins