Rasharkin issue a warning
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Rasharkin issued a warning to all comers as they made their way to the semi-final of the Antrim senior football championship.
At Randalstown they caused the upset of the competition so far when beating a fancied St.Pauls side 1-9 to 0-11.
In a confident, well motivated and disciplined performance they made their Belfast opponents look second rate in the first half and put up a tremendous fight in the second when everything was thrown at them, to win by a point.
Their reward is a semi-final game against Hannastown at the week-end.
After serving a one year sentence in Division 2 football and still finding their feet in the top grade again, this performance showed just what they are capable of.
They began as if their very life depended on it and after thirty minutes had made St.Pauls look a very ordinary outfit.
And, while the second half told a very different tale they absorbed it all and had enough left to come back strong at the end.
Jonathan McAleese got them away with a point after five minutes and they never looked back. Declan McKay hit another one six minutes later before the Belfast side got off the mark.
Paul Denver scored in the eighteenth minute only to see McKay add another.
The crucial score came from Michael Hasson in the twenty second minute. Operating at centre half forward he had a pot shot at goals which Sean McGreevy managed to block but intelligent work from Hasson saw him collect the deflection and bury it.
While Jim O'Neill did add a second point for St Pauls it was McKay and Conor Gribben who took Rasharkin to a comfortable 1-5 to 0-2 interval lead.
If the South Antrim side didn't perform in the first half then they certainly came to life in the second. While they never actually got in front they came close on a number of occasions and a great run of points saw them get on level terms as the game entered the final quarter.
Nial Ward led the charge a minute after the restart with a Michael Hasson point from a free clearly indicating that Rasharkin intended to hold on. Jim O'Neill added three and Mickey Joe Cooper two and suddenly the Belfast men were very much back in it.
Level at 1-6 to 0-9 it could have gone either way but Rasharkin refused to be bullied into giving in. Substitute Eamon McNeill broke the dead lock with a 49 minute score and Jonathan McAleese put them back in the driving seat when he knocked over a free, four minutes later.
Gary Flynn kept up the chase for St.Pauls with an immediate reply to McAleese, but Aiden Dunlop saved the show when he fired over St.Marys last point with five minutes remaining.
It was now a case of holding on to what they had got and Rasharkin did it in style.
They limited the opposition to one further score, from Mickey Joe Cooper, and survived to make the semi finals, the first time since 2004.
This enormous victory will surely now make the South West side believe in itself. Up to this game they were still unsure of where they were going but now they must feel that they have a great chance to make the final.
One worry will be the injury to Benny Hasson, who had to retire early, but ,apart from that, they have a few more days to get their heads right once more.
While this was a tremendous effort from one to fifteen and from the two substitutes used, the performance of Brendan Etherson deserves a mention.
While he may not have scored he was involved in everything and he will remember this quarter-final victory for many a day. The contribution made by Michael Hasson and Declan McKay cannot be ignored either and they were the forwards to haul Rasharkin to this elevated position.
St.Pauls had a poor first half but came good in the second. Paudric Lowe, Brian Gillan Jim O'Neill and Mickey Joe Cooper were their sharpest players.
Rasharkin 's scorers: Michael Hasson (1-1), Declan McKay (0-3),Jonathan McAleese (0-2),Aiden Dunlop (0-1), Conor Gribben (0-1) and Eamon McNeill (0-1).
St.Pauls scorers: Jim O'Neill (0-4), Mickey Joe Cooper (0-3),Paul Denver (0-1), Nial Ward (0-1),Damien Duffy (0-1) and Gary Flynn (0-1).
