First win for St Mary’s seniors in Division One

ST MARY’S Senior Footballers picked up their first win of the season in the AFL Division 1 as they defeated St Jude’s last Sunday by a score of 2-06 to 1-08 to secure a one point win.

The match was originally supposed to be played in Tymon Park though the venue was changed to Saggart due to an unplayable pitch.

Mary’s managed to keep their noses in front for most of the game though they did have to survive some late pressure from Jude’s particularly towards the final minutes of the contest.

A goal late on from Marys looked to put them clear at five points ahead though Judes would respond almost immediately in kind keeping the game in balance right up to the final whistle.

Goalscorers on the day would be Conor Jameson and Shane Buckley while Rhys Butler and Colin Lawlor impressed massively in the defensive end of the pitch.

After coming up from Division 2 a couple of years ago, Marys are looking to establish themselves as a Division 1 this year after narrowly avoiding the drop in previous campaigns.

Manager Seamus Walsh touched on the ambition of the squad.

“We’ve just about stayed up for the last two years and we’re hoping to push on from that.

‘We finished on 12 points last year and the year before so we would love to be around the 16 point mark this year.

‘It’s a tall order as Division 1 has some of the best teams in the country.

‘We are trying to push ourselves and not just trying to stay up, if we could finish mid-table that would be a success for us this year.”

One of the smaller clubs in Division 1, St Mary’s can be proud of their standing in the top league in all of Dublin.

Despite the presence of huge teams such as Ballyboden St Endas and Kilamcud Crokes, Mary’s are more than aware what dangers other teams can pose.

“There’s no such thing as an easy game. There’s probably four or five super-clubs in Division 1 and then you would have six or seven other clubs on a similar standard to ourselves.

‘It’ll always be a tough game, even against teams that just got promoted.

‘We were beaten in the first game of the season by Raheny. They just came up from Division 2 but they had Brian Fenton in midfield.”

The club play their next game in two week’s time as they travel to Donabate to play St Patricks.