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U16 Footballers defeat Whitehall in crunch League tie - Sun, 21 Nov 2004

St Brigid's 2-6 Whitehall Colmcille 1-6

St Brigids U16 Footballers continued their rich vain of form as they deservedly won this hard-hitting league encounter against a physical Whitehall side.  St Brigids deserved to win although their domination was not reflected on the scoreboard. St Brigids dominated for long periods of the game but could not make it count where it mattered. The game was played in real winter conditions with driving rain and a very strong wild.  The weather didn't help the game as a spectacle with tackles flying in everywhere but the referee done a great job to control some incidents that could have easily boiled over. St Brigids knew that they would have to win this game if they were to compete for league honours at the end of the year.

Whitehall won the toss and decided to play with the aid of a strong breeze, which should have enabled them to build up a good lead by half time. Whitehall's started the game very well and the early sending off of St Brigids midfielder Fergal Counihan for a minor offence was a major blow to St Brigids. Brigids responded to this setback by moving corner forward Paul Crehan to midfield. Things soon got worse as Whitehall were awarded a dubious penalty. Impressive corner forward Nigel Nugent duly converted giving St Brigids goalkeeper Philip Brogan no chance. Whitehall added a further three points to lead by six after twenty minutes. Corner forward Nugent was a cause of concern for the St Brigids defence as his pace and deceptive off the ball running was causing problems. Brigids opened their account with a superbly taken goal by Joe Cousin who ran onto a beautifully placed ball from Joe Jordan. Cousin holding off his marker to smash the ball to the net and bring St Brigids right back into the game within minutes of the half time break. Whitehall responded immediately with a well-taken point from midfielder John Roche. St Brigids were definitely the happier of the two sides at the break but they knew that they would have to up the tempo to win the match. St Brigids young rear guard were coping very well with the very physical Whitehall forwards who were getting frustrated with the lack of quality ball. The St Brigids full-back line were leading by example in defence giving St Brigids a strong foundation to launch attacks from.

Whitehall started the second half as they finished the first. Centre forward, Conor Roche drilling the ball over the bar from the right wing. St Brigids were finding it very hard to get a foothold in the game. They badly needed a score to get them going. Mark Cousin answered the call with three superbly taken frees off his left boot. Joe Jordan was beginning to assert his influence on the game and he cemented his man of the match performance with his some fine fielding and runs right through the centre of the Whitehall defence. Whitehall were under severe pressure as St Brigids launched wave upon wave of attacks. Brigids narrowed the gap to one when Paul Crehan rifled the ball over the bar from distance. St Brigids tails were really up as Whitehall were struggling to fight off the St Brigids onslaught. Whitehall weren?t going to go down without a fight as they soon added to their lead with a well-taken point from corner forward Nugent, jinking from his left to his right before lofting the ball over the bar.

St Brigids introduced several substitutes at this stage and they had an immediate effect. Substitute Neil Davey impact was felt immediately when Davey capitalised on a defensive mistake in the Whitehall defence to rifle the ball to the Whitehall net. St Brigids notched up two further points with Mark Cousin adding to his hail pointing from the right wing after some great interchanging play between Joe Jordan and Michael O'Doherty. Paul Crehan registering his second point of the game when pointing from distance off his left. Whitehall were finding it hard to build any platform for an attack due to the great defensive play from the entire St Brigids team right up to the full forward line. St Brigids held on to win the game and remain on course for league honours.

St Brigids: P Brogan, S Plunkett, B Lane, D Greene, D Lucey, D Brady, J Kavanagh, F Counihan, J Jordan, J Cousin, M O'Doherty, T Nolan, P Crehan, M Cousin, C Doyle.
 
Subs: E McGarrell, S Tye, E Thynan, N Davey
 
Scorers: M Cousin 0-4, J Cousin, N Davey 1-0 each, P Crehan 0-2
 
Half Time: Whitehall Colmcille 1-4, St Brigids 1-0

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