St James’ finish strongly to condemn Caltra to SFC relegation final
With the game in the balance in the closing minutes, St James’ produced the vital scores to eventually prevail, 1-20 to 1-12, sending Caltra into a relegation final against Naomh Anna Leitir Móir.
This semi-final contest in Tuam Stadium on Saturday was certainly well contested, as the city side enjoyed a two point interval advantage, before hitting a rich spell on the restart to open up a six point gap.
At the other end of the park, Caltra can only look at themselves as a scoreless 18-minute spell saw them fire six wides in succession, before a brief spell of supremacy saw them close the margin to just one with five minutes remaining.
Thereafter it was the trusty left peg of Jack Nolan that turned matters the way of St James' as he contributed six points in the closing minutes as they eased to a win.
Colin Kelly looked sharp in the corner for the city outfit on his return from injury, and two early points from him and one from Nolan gave them an early scoring advantage, before Caltra took over and slotted over four in succession through Alan Naughton (two), Eoin Ó Ceallaigh, and Jack Muldowney to lead by 0-4 to 0-3.
Thereafter, the remainder of the half was pretty balanced as the contributions of Paul Conroy, Jack O'Neill, Rory Gleeson and Ruairi King gave St James' ammunition to get scores and they obliged as Kelly, King, Jack Ryan, and two from Conroy from a free and a mark, kept them in the ascendancy.
At the other end of the park, the ability and skills of Alan Naughton are renowned and he was causing the city side a lot of problems in the corner, as the likes of Mikey Mulryan, Owen Naughton, Shane Loughrey, and Shaun Keane were also making telling contributions.
However, the Caltra opportunities were more limited, but points by Naughton and Ross Hannon left them two points in arrears before they struck for the first goal of the game on 28 minutes, when Naughton set up Keane to blast to the net.
The advantage was short-lived, however, as a Conroy pass found Nolan in space and from a tight angle he drilled a low shot past Odhran Loughrey to give his side a 1-8 to 1-6 interval advantage.
Caltra got the first score on the resumption courtesy of a Naughton free, before their wide tally began to hurt them as five different players were off target with efforts.
St James' were having no such problems as they gradually opened up a gap, as King with three points and Nolan with two extended their advantage to 1-13 to 1-7 on 50 minutes.
Another twist in the game saw a breach allow Naughton to pop over a two pointer, with Sean Butler following suit with another. Naughton then brought it back to a single point game with a score from play at 1-13 to 1-12.
The closing minutes were all about St James' as Nolan sent over two two-point frees, before adding another brace to bring his tally to 1-9, before a late Dessie Hynes punched effort sealed the win and sent Caltra into a relegation final.
St James': J Egan; E Moran, C O'Regan, J Folan; R Gleeson, K Hourigan, E Finnerty; P Conroy (0-2, 0-1f, 0-1mark), J O'Neill; R King (0-4), J Culligan, J Ryan (0-1); C Kelly (0-3), A Connolly, J Nolan (1-9, 0-3f, 2x2pf). Subs: D Masterson for Folan (31mins), D Hynes (0-1) for Hourigan (48mins), E Boyce for Kelly (inj, 52mins).
Caltra: O Loughrey; D McCabe, J Barrett, A Doyle; S Butler (0-2, 2pp), S Loughrey, O Butler; O Naughton, M Mulryan; R Hannon (0-1), E Ó Ceallaigh, J Muldowney (0-1); A Naughton (0-8, 0-1f, 2pp) S Keane (1-0), K Murray. Subs: E Naughton for Doyle (43mins), L Cosgrove for Hannon (53mins).
Referee: Shane Curley.