The under 16?s completed their preparations for the forthcoming A league fixtures with a comprehensive victory over Creggan. This was a return fixture as Creggan had travelled to Desertmartin earlier in the year losing out by a seven point margin.
Desertmartin 7-20 Creggan 2-4
The team opened brightly and really took the game to Creggan from the start. Enda McGuckan opened the scoring with a point followed quickly by a goal from the same player. An early injury to Sean Fullen saw John Hughes enter the game and he didn?t take long to settle in hitting 2 points from his first two touches a further point from Greg McGovern opened a seven point lead. Creggan eventually opened their account with a point. A goal from Greg followed by points from John, Paddy Trainor and Enda O?Hagan however increased the lead to 12 points. The team then got complacent and allowed Creggan back into the game adding 2-1 to their total with John adding his 4th point of the half in reply.
After a few harsh words from Management at the break a more determined team took the field for the second half. Scores came freely throughout and Creggan had no answer to the crisp passing and movement of the team and the work rate of all the players. John Hughes bagged a second half hatrick with further goals from Greg and Joey, Enda McGuckan hit 6 points with further points from C Brown 3, and John, Enda and Fearghal 1 each. Creggan did manage 2 further points.
This was a very convincing performance from the Team but stronger challenges do lie ahead. Christopher had a sound game in goals with the full back line of Matt, Paul and Sean all playing well. Danny Hegarty replaced Sean at half time and had a very sound game. The half back line of Paul, Patrick and Ryan were very strong throughout breaking up attacks and setting up the forwards. Midfield after a shaky first half really got their act together for the second half and gave the team a solid footing to create chances for the forwards. The half forward line with the exceptions of Paul McGovern struggled throughout the game Cathal Brown helped after being introduced and there is certainly better to come from this line. The twin partnership of John and Enda returned a tally of 4-12 between them and they got good support from Paddy and Fearghal.
Despite not appearing on the scoreboard my man of the match was Paul McGovern whose work rate throughout the game was immense he had a hand in a lot of scores and he did a tremendous job in cutting out the Creggan short kick outs.
Line out
1. C Bradley
2. M Connery
3. P Kidd
4. S McStravock
5. P McFlynn
6. P O?Neill
7. R Murray
8. G McGovern (2-1)
9. C Madden
10. P McGovern
11. S Fullen
12. J Leyden (C ) (1-0)
13. P Trainor (0-1)
14. E O?Hagan (0-2)
15. E McGuckan (1-7)
Subs
J Hughes (3-5)
C Brown (0-3)
D Hegarty
F Higgins (0-1)