St. John's hold off Freemount in low scoring Duhallow JBHL encounter

DUHALLOW JBHL

St. John's 0-7

Freemount 0-6

St. John's grinded out a narrow win over Freemount in a tight Duhallow Junior B Football League tie at Station Road. By the end of the hour, the hosts were forced to withstand a spirited Freemount surge that strove might and main to snatch a share of the spoils.

Hard earned as the scoreline suggests, St. John's held the better composure to see out a narrow win in their initial outing to the campaign. Ball handling was tough in the wet conditions, St. John adapted well in the opening half, driven on by Denis O'Keeffe, Pa Rohan and Jamie Cooper.

With Conor Healy in fine shooting form, St. John's held the initiative, Freemount relying on a pair of pointed frees from Luke Morrissey to trail 0-5 to 0-2 at the interval. However, there was alot more urgency to Freemount's game on the restart, encouraged by the play of Liam Enright, Conor Shanhan, Shane O'Callaghan and Cathal Broderick.

Points to the Brodericks and Mark Ballentyne had the deficit down to the minimum entering the closing exchanges. As the tension mounted, so did the excitement, St. John's hanging on for dear life but ultimately savouring victory.

ST. JOHN'S: H Sheehan; T Sheehan, D O'Keeffe, Con Lane; P O'Keeffe, Conor Lane, S Kelleher; K Sheehan, P Rohan; D Dennehy, J Cooper 0-2, M O'Riordan; L O'Sullivan, D Sheehan 0-1, C Healy 0-4. Subs: A Sheehan, J Ring.

FREEMOUNT: S Dunstan, R McAulliffe, J Walsh, K O'Connor; L Enright, M Ballentyne 0-1, C Shanahan, S O'Callaghan 0-1, C Broderick 0-1; S Broderick, 0-1 L Morrissey 0-2, J Morrissey, C Walsh, G Hayes, G Kennedy.

Referee: J Hartnett (Boherbue).