St James’ back in the title hunt after seeing off Bearna rivals

Bearna na Forbacha 0-13

By DARREN KELLY at PEARSE STADIUM

SCARRED by squandering a nine-point lead in Round 1, St. James’ learned their lesson last Saturday to take control of the second half against Bearna na Forbacha and secure a place in the knockout stages of the senior football championship.

Goals from Brian Kane and Paul Conroy in either half were the crucial blows, but it was the way the Darragh Leonard and Eoin Concannon managed team approached the third quarter that impressed most.

St. James’ led Bearna na Forbacha 1-7 to 0-9 at half-time with the breeze blowing towards the Prairie, but they proceeded to take ownership of the ball afterwards and outscored their opponents 1-6 to 0-1 by the 50th minute.

With a positive scoring difference, St. James’ can’t fall into relegation but Bearna na Forbacha’s fate is still in their own hands. Despite two defeats, victory over Killannin (probably by at least five points) would see them into the final 12.

After both teams suffered first round defeats, the importance of getting points in the table was imperative and St. James’ did that perfectly. Jack Nolan launched a two-pointer from the right on four minutes, before winning a free that led to Conroy splitting the posts from distance.

That put four between them and even though Sean Dunne opened Bearna’s account in the 10th minute, Dan McNulty supplied Stephen McCooey to make it 0-5 to 0-1 straight away.

Cossie Gilmore, who’d earlier won the Ted Webb Cup as Galway under-16 manager, was still without Cian Hernon and Aaron Kavanagh following their success across the Atlantic, but his team were still determined to improve significantly on their eight point total against Maigh Cuilinn.

Dunne got his second from the left thanks to McComiskey on 12 minutes. And the latter was then the beneficiary of Tom Curran’s hard work before the quarter hour. A Curran free on 16 minutes left Na Forbacha just 0-5 to 0-4 down.

St James’ replied with Kane opening his account after McNulty’s industry but Donnacha Naughton strode up the field and fisted over a point.  he Jimmies were guilty of trying to set up too many false chances outside the arc but they did secure a better prize in the 25th minute.

Jonah Culligan raided down the left and passed inside before being challenged. Kane turned on his right and sent the ball into the net leaving it 1-6 to 0-5.

Pictured: Stephen McCooey of St James' tries to intercept the pass of Bearna na Forbacha's Caimin Rooney during Saturday's Senior Football Group 2 tussle at Pearse Stadium. Photo: Joe O'Shaughnessy.