The Senior team took on AGB in hard fought League game in the Dogtrack on Sunday Morning.

Over a weekend where many normally starting players were unavailable and a match scheduled for the awkward time of 11:30, Annacurra unsuccessfully tried to have the fixture changed. Things did not look good for the team at kick off. What could be considered a scratch line out of players forced upon the management and selectors because of circumstances and having to play a physically big Gers team on their home turf, it was looking like the team had a mountain to climb.

The Gers opened the scoring in the first minute with a point and it took Annacurra another 5 minutes to level the scores. Soon after which they pulled ahead by a point only for the Gers to reply quickly and just as fast to go 3 points to 2 up after 14 minutes. A period of tit for tat exchanges started with both teams on 5 points apiece after 20 minutes. The game looked like it was going to simmer there for a while as for a brief spell neither Annacurra nor the Gers could gain much traction. That is until the 26th minute when some loose defending in the Annacurra back division led to a goal for AGB. The Arklow men looked to be in the ascendancy.

But Annacurra displayed some battling qualities straight away to go back up the field and reply to the Gers goal with a point of their own. This battling quality was to prove vital for the Annacurra men later in the game as the Gers convincingly won the “Championship minutes”, the 5 minutes before and 5 after the interval. During that period the Arklow men outscored Annacurra by 4 points to no response to garner a 6 point lead at 5 minutes into the second half.

Things looked bleak for the 2010 Intermediate champions, they were 6 points down, playing a physically bigger team and without their star performers of Alan Byrne and Frank Clune who were on county duty. Also missing were Clive Horan and Peter Clancy, who usually line out in the key positions of centre forward and midfield respectively. Factor in the young age and inexperience of some of the players who are still playing minor and junior football and many would have written Annacurra off at that stage.

Importantly though the 15 men in the hallowed green and gold jerseys on the field didn’t write themselves off and had the self belief and determination to remember how they won the county Intermediate championship in 2010 and make it to the last 8 of the Senior championship in 2011.

The management team of Robert Doyle, John Horan and Tony Doyle reacted to the problem by bringing Chris Keogh on to play corner forward and the more experienced heads on the team showed leadership and passion but crucially the knowledge of how to close a game out to start a fight back.

On the 40 minute mark, while facing a 6 point deficit Annacurra took the ball into AGB’s large rectangle for one of the first times in the match and won a penalty. Opinions on the veracity of the penalty varied greatly in the stand and for the men in the green and blue of AGB on the pitch but the referee blew his whistle and spread his arms on the edge of the square to signal the spot kick.

Ian McDonald, who had been quite by his own high standards from play up to this point, lined up the shot and coolly and calmly stroked it into the back of the net to half the scoreline problem that faced Annacurra.

This signalled a resurgence in the Annacurra team and possibly had a negative impact on the mindset of the Arklow and Ballymoney men who were deserving leaders up to that point but felt hard done by by the penalty decision. They dropped their heads and began to let the game get on top of them from then on. This was most apparent in the fact that after the penalty on the 40 minute mark for Annacurra, the Gers only scored another point by the end of play.

The scores stood at Annacurra 1-6 and Arklow Geraldines Ballymoney 1-9 after the penalty on the 40th minute.

The first difficult step up the mountain had been taken but there were many more hard yards to be made. It was players like Mick O’Brien, in one of his first starts for the team of this campaign due to work commitments, who helped make those yards. Mick was relatively subdued in the first half as he fought for match fitness and sharpness but upped the ante in the second half to put in a crucial performance at half forward to win much needed primary possession in the middle third of the pitch. He was very much aided by a magnificent performance from his compatriot half forward Shane O’Keefe whose tireless work throughout the match was imperative to any success that Annacurra were looking at.

The midfield duo of Martin O’Brien and Paul McDonald put in stalwart performances and Paul’s efforts could only be described as barnstormingly good. The young farmer was a linchpin of both attack and defence and must have covered every blade of grass on the field at least twice at some stage. His biggest contribution though was in his hard fought battle to win position in the middle of the park. A role he repeatedly put his body on the line to do. Paul took some hard knocks during the game but after each one he simply picked himself up and worked harder for the next ball. His efforts and work ethic along with his skill at plucking a ball out of the blue sky deservedly won him the man of the match accolade from the AnnacurraGAAClub.com representative at the game, (Paul doesn’t drink so he’ll have to settle for a rock shandy the next time I see him in the Saltee).

Pauls stellar performance should not detract from his midfield partners, Martin O’Brien, performance though. Martin, who would have un-self consciously admitted that he was finding the transition from the backs to midfield this year difficult, managed to clear some of his demons away and turned in an excellent performance in the number 8 jersey. He hoovered up much of the breaking ball at midfield but his distribution of ball into the forwards was the catalyst for many of Annacurra’s much needed scores and his most important contribution to the game.

The Wicklow minors loss was Annacurra’s gain. Robert, (Bob), Fitzgerald, son of former chairman and club stalwart Martin and brother of James who lined out at corner forward, started between the sticks for Annacurra on Sunday as he had done for the county minors in their loss to Westmeath in the Leinster championship on Saturday. His young age didn’t show though and he couldn’t be faulted for the goal that flew past him but he demonstrated his potential with his long range and accurate kick outs that proved a vital platform for Annacurra’s attack. Plus the cool and effective way he dealt with the dangerous high ball that was lobbed into the Annacurra small rectangle by the Gers towards the end of the match signalled hope for the future between the Annacurra and Wicklow sticks.

While many of the team were relatively youthful and inexperienced there were 4 veteran heads in the Annacurra defence in the form of Liam Moules and Shane Mac in the corners between Ciaran the pound at full back and Vincent Flaherty at centre back. Annacurra GAA club has much to thank Veronica Carr for, not only her starring performances for the Camoige teams throughout the years but for bringing Vinny to the club from Carnew. Vinny lined out at centre back and added much needed physicality and determination to the Annacurra defence, being responsible for breaking up much of the oppositions advances into the Annacurra half and supporting the attack with good ball into the midfield and forwards.

The pound, like every other full back in history, will be disappointed that the Gers managed to rattle the Annacurra net in the first half but upped his game for the second and was responsible for cutting out a couple of crucial ball’s that made it threateningly into the AGB inside forwards towards the latter stages of the game. Balls that if they had been converted into scores could have proved disastrous for Annacurra.

Shane and Liam in the corners proved more than effective at cutting out any ball that came near them as usual in the first half but their biggest contribution to the Annacurra cause came in the second when they started to get onto the ball more in more advanced positions further up the park and pass threatening ball into the oppositions half of the pitch. Liam in particular made important runs up the field and Shane was responsible for cleaning up ball between the full and half forwards during the latter part of the second half that was vital.

If the more experienced men at numbers 2, 3, 4 and 6 were decisive the “boys” wearing the numbers 5 and 7 jerseys respectively offered even more hope for a bright sporting future if they continue to play football as they proved themselves to be men of young years. The brothers Jack and Nevan O’Sullivan lined out as the wing backs. Jack had a relatively subdued game by his own high potential but all the same he did not have a poor one, there were many players in the green and gold competing for plaudits and Jacks key performance in the number 5 jersey was more than adequate and his contribution was as vital as everyone elses. Nevan had a particularly good first half and was responsible in large measure for helping to keep Annacurra in touch at the interval through his dangerous runs into the oppositions half and his winning of much broken ball in the middle third.

With the backs and midfield providing the necessary platform for success and half forward pairing of Mick O’Brien and Shane O’Keefe proving influential the team turned to its centre forward for inspiration. Patrick Moules was playing in a position that he has had little familiarity with in recent times and because of this, his performance in the earlier stages might have been less marked than his performance to help close out the game towards the end. But like the rest of the team he upped his game after the crucial penalty and was responsible for winning much of the important ball on the Gers 45 that lead to the necessary scoring chances if Annacurra were to reverse the deficit and emerge victorious.

There was a deficit of ball going into the Annacurra inside forward line for them to threaten as much as they could have and as already mentioned Ian McDonald up until the end of the game had a somewhat quiet performance by his own standards. However, as the free taker in the absence of Clive and Frank he proved crucial by only missing one dead ball chance from distance and contributing well taken points from play. His inside forward partners of James Fitzgerald and Stephen Doyle were struggling somewhat in unfamiliar territory as they have both lined out in goal for Annacurra in the past. Credit to the both of them for the efforts they put in though. Stephen showed his footballing prowess with a number of dangerous off the ball runs and some defence opening passes as Annacurra piled the pressure on at the close of the game looking for a result. James must have been disappointed to have been substituted for Chris Keogh on the 37 minute mark as it was difficult for him to make his mark on the game in the unfamiliar territory of the inside forward line. Chris, (Jasper), Keogh made an impact when he came on though as he looked to get busy around the oppositions square and offer supporting options to the attacking moves the Annacurra men were making into the AGB half.

So, on the 40 minute mark the game seemed balanced on a knife point with a resurgent Annacurra facing a 3 point deficit to a strong and well performing AGB team.

The lads dug in, lifted their heads up and got on with a fight back. Within 2 minutes Annacurra tagged on another two points to reduce the deficit to the minimum only for the Gers to increase their lead back to 2 points on the 43 minute mark. This didn’t dent the men from Annacurra’s resolve though as they lifted themselves back up and carried on with the hard task facing them. Annacurra scored points on the 49th and 52nd minutes to level the match, (your correspondent regrets he didn’t take better note of who the crucial point scorers were and resolves to do so in the future), then in the 54th minute added another score from a placed ball by Ian McDonald to go a point ahead for the first time since the 8th minute.

The Gers had a man sent off for a second yellow card and in the first minute of stoppage time the men wearing the green and gold capitalised on the advantage of the extra man and added another point to make the margin that most dangerous of ones, a 2 pointer. Several nerve wracking minutes of extra time were then played with the Gers making strong efforts to threaten the Annacurra goal but to no avail as the Annacurra team rallied and fought hard to keep their lead and run out two point winners at the end.

Credit is due to the Arklow and Ballymoney men, while the final score might not have gone their way, it could have been a much different story but for the objected to penalty decision and they remained threatening up until the end. They can take heart from their game, if a few key decisions had been reversed they could have as easily won and would have been deserving victors had they done so.

Nor should this stellar performance from an under strength Annacurra team lead to complacency on their behalf. Not all results will go the same way for the green and gold and while overhauling a 6 point deficit is admirable, going 6 points down in a game is a problem that should be be avoided in the future. Plus in the context of this years league campaign, this was only one bright spark in what will be a hard fought campaign with tougher tests to come.

In summary, a fine performance was turned in by all, but with work still to be done and much hope for the future, Annacurra ran out deserved winners over a strong AGB side to put them on 6 points after 7 games in the league. A position that hopefully will aid them in staying in the top flight for next year.

The final score was: Annacurra 1 – 12, Arklow Geraldines Ballymoney 1 – 10

AnnacurraGAAClub.com Man of the Match: Paul McDonald

The Annacurra team lined out as follows.

Robert Fitzgerald, Liam Moules, Ciaran Byrne, Shane McAllister, Jack O’Sullivan, Vinny Flaherty, Nevan O’Sullivan, Martin O’Brien, Paul McDonald, Shane O’Keefe, Patrick Moules, Mick O’Brien, James Fitzgerald, Ian MacDonald, Stephen Doyle.

Subs: Chris Keogh (for James Fitzgerald on 37 mins or so), Dermot Murphy, John O’Neil and Jack Keenan.