Venue: Bushy Park

Gaels continued their push towards promotion with an eight-point win over St James’ Gaels at Bushy Park on Sunday afternoon.

The win keeps them on track for a playoff place, but the performance lacked fluency at times and didn’t come close to the impressive levels reached in other recent outings.

Manager Liam O’Hagan was forced to make a number of changes following the previous week’s convincing win over St Kevin’s/Killian’s and this probably was a factor.

The home side took a commanding early 0-6 to 0-0 lead thanks to scores from Enda Marren, Eamon Courntey and Alan Kelly, though they didn’t build on this.

The rhythm of the contest was interrupted midway through the first half due a lengthy stoppage in play and this allowed the visitors to regroup and afterwards they worked themselves back into the game.

Ranelagh got to grips with the situation again however and Ronan Rasdale, who produced an impressive turn at full forward, rattled the net to bring his total to 1-3 before the break and leave the scores at 1-9 to 0-5 at the change of ends.

As expected, St James’ Gaels showed plenty of fight early in the second half and at one stage they reduced the gap to just five points to give O’Hagan some nervous moments on the sideline.

The two points for a win were finally made safe shortly before the end when industrious centre forward Paul O’Mahoney raised the green flag.

A Denis Doolan free from the right wing was kept in play by Gordon Pritchard and the ball was moved along by Rasdale before O’Mahoney volleyed home from close range.

A couple of late scores were tagged on, including an excellent effort from Pritchard, to ensure a deserved ten-point win which keeps the Gaels at the top of AFL Division 10 South.

REFREE: B Gaynor (St Peregrine’s)

NOTE – (Due to demands on space, I left out the paragraph about the game, which hung in the balance for several minutes, being heroically saved by Peter Sweeney when he got up on Corky’s shoulders to tape the net back in place. However, if anyone feels that it is essential to the narrative of the occasion, I will add it in.)