St Anthony’s Gaelic Football side opened a new chapter in the clubs 60 year history with its first competitive fixtures in Hertfordshire.
The venue was the county grounds in Watford and the competition was a 9-a-side blitz tournament against Hertfordshire’s other seven clubs in pursuit of the John Wallace Cup and the chance to host the championship semi-finals later in the year.
Drawn in round robin with Éire Óg Oxford, St Vincents of Luton and St Colmcilles of St Albans, Reading would need to finish first of four to advance to a final against the winner of the other group.
Anthony’s started out strongly against Oxford, building a lead early through points from Frank Kealey, Rian Kealey and Shane Dowling.
An excellently worked team move and finish from Frank Kealey pushed the Reading lead to six but wayward shooting from both sides tempered the scores.
Éire Óg hit back with two scores of their own but a free from Rian Kealey and a score from Ronan O’Sullivan attacking from deep left St Anthonys the winners by 1-5 to 0-2.
After a quick turnaround, Reading’s next opponents were St Colmcilles, who had narrowly lost their opener to St Vincents.
The narrative of this one was an about turn from the success of the first game, with the young Colmcilles side quickly building a lead of 1-4 to 0-0 through the first half.
Although clearly a one-sided affair, the scoreline failed to reflect the multiple goal chances and scoring opportunities Anthonys failed to seize upon.
While Colmcilles only managed to add two more points in the second half, accompanied by a missed penalty, Reading were unable to open their account and were left scoreless once the referee’s final whistle signalled the end of the 20 minute encounter.
These mixed fortunes left the group tightly poised, with each team on one win and one loss.
St Anthony’s hopes of reaching a cup final in their inaugural Hertfordshire competition rested on beating St Vincents of Luton and hoping for the right result in the other game.
Vincents scored first and second with one from play and one from a free and the finish to the previous game seemed to be following Anthonys into this one. Ho
wever, Reading rallied with a goal before half time – Phil McCabe fielding a long ball in the full forward line and delivering a pass to Shane Dowling for the finish.
Vincents responded with a point and left the game tied at the half. Before that could come, a sequence of tussles and exchanges saw Reading’s Johno O’Sullivan and St Vincents captain Stephen McKiernan both shown two yellow cards each and the game reduced to eight-a-side.
This turn of events arguably favoured Reading, with goalkeeper Ryan Doonan able to play a more active part and Ronan O’Sullivan exploiting space from deep to drive St Anthony’s on.
After the half Frank Kealey added his second goal of the tournament alongside two more points from Anthonys to give the Berkshire side a healthy lead.
However, they let the foot of the gas somewhat, with Vincents adding two more scores to make it tighter than it should be and leaving the final score 2-3 to 0-5.
Everything on the outcome of Oxford v Colmcilles, with a win for the St Albans club taking them through and a win for Éire Óg handing a final place to St Anthony’s.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for Reading, with Colmcilles ultimately securing the win ad advancing due to their head-to-head record.
