Gr-eight display from Savage secures victory for Dromara

2 September 2020

A LATE point from Dromara’s Luke Savage settled this tightly-contested Parador Lodge Down IFC tussle with St John’s on Saturday afternoon at Ballykinlar.

In the wake of the game, St John’s manager Marty Clarke confirmed he would be stepping down from his role.

He said: “I would like to thank the St John’s club for the three seasons I had as coach/manager there. It was a roller coaster of emotions from game one to my final game against Dromara.

“I feel the time is now right for me to step away and for someone else to take the senior group forward.”

It was impossible to predict a winner in the match, such was the nature of the to-and-fro between two evenly matched teams.

St John’s got the scoreboard rolling early on when Conor Flanagan scored a good point from play.

However, some neat interchange play in the Dromara attack allowed Luke Savage to level with a point from right of the target in the eighth minute.

Marty Keenan put St John’s ahead when he twisted his marker and turned sharply before firing over the posts to make it 0-2 to 0-1.

From a 25-metre free, Luke Savage’s neat finish ensured it was all-square between the teams at the first water-break.

When play resumed, Dromara edged ahead once more when his Savage scored his third point from a free.

On 21 minutes, it was a level affair once more, Andrew Gilmore’s free restoring parity for St John’s.

Another free allowed Savage to keep his 100% strike rate going before Gilmore’s second score of the match left them again neck-and-neck.

Eoin McEvoy drove purposefully at the St John’s back line on 27 minutes, earning a free which the ever reliable Savage sent over the bar for his fifth score.

Gilmore was proving just as efficient for St John’s and on 28 minutes he popped over a free to leave it at 0-5 apiece at the interval.

In the second half, it was St John’s who edged ahead, John Clark notching with an impressively-taken score from play.

McEvoy was continuing to present problems for St John’s and the Dromara man’s darting run at the defence yielded a wonderful solo point.

Eleven minutes into the second half, St John’s moved 0-7 to 0-6 ahead with a coolly-taken free by Gilmore and they extended the gap when John Clarke fisted over a point from an Eoin Moag pass.

Dromara continued to keep a real interest in the contest and cut the gap again to a single point, Eoin McEvoy firing over the bar.

An expertly-taken Marty Keenan score from play once again made it a two-point game by the next water break.

With just over ten minutes to play, a huge Brendan McKay score brought Dromara back to within a point.

Ryan Flanagan, of St John’s, was then black-carded and Luke Savage then sent over a free to make it all square at 0-9 to 0-9.

With four minutes left on the clock, Andrew Gilmore’s score from play 45 metres out edged St John’s back in front. Two minutes from the end Savage knocked over a free to make it 0-10 to 0-10.

But in added time, another score from Savage settled the issue and Dromara progressed to the next round.

Dromara: S O’Hare, C Malone, S McNally, R McArdle, B McKay (0-1), S Downey, B McNeill (C), C Kelly, B McElroy, L Savage (0-8), C Burns, P Doyle, P Flynn, F McKey, E McEvoy (0-2). Subs: S O’Hare, D Walker, PJ Drake, C McCombe, J Walker, F McKay, C McKey, R Fegan, D Fegan, M Doyle, D McNeill, B Doyle, J Fegan.

St John’s: S Walsh, J Addis, A Morgan, M Grant, D McMullan, R Flanagan, C Gilmore, H McMullan, D McKay, R Gibney, J Clarke (0-2), E Moag, C Branniff (C), A Gilmore (0-5), M Keenan (0-2) Subs: H Flanagan, C McKay, D Savage, C O’Connor, R McMullan, C Burns, C Flanagan (0-1), J Savage, M Flynn, T McCullough.

Dromara 0-11

St John’s 0-10

PARADOR LODGE DOWN IFC

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