John Mitchels 6 -12
St Barnabas 0-11

John Mitchels completed a famous 3 in a row of Warwickshire championships on Sunday after a comprehensive six goal performance proved enough to defeat St Barnabas.
 
Despite a gutsy second half performance from the challengers, the strength in depth and experience of the Mitchels panel proved too much for the Nottingham Club who nonetheless are in an upward curve of their own.

They reacted well to going down to early frees from Padraic Crehan, with Conor Robbins landing a free of his own and then latching onto a through pass from Chris McDonald for an excellent leveller. However Mitchels got into their stride and soon after Crehan landed his third free from distance and they struck the game’s opening goal when Michael Dillon batter a dropping shot into the path of Des Kelly who swept home. A second goal followed almost immediately Ogie Long powering his way from the left to square across  to john Reddan to finish past Dillon. With Mitchels now in full swing it could have been three when Willie Allen darted towards goal and squared into the path of Kelly who turned to shoot over the bar. Barnabas needed a foothold on the game to resurrect theis challenge and they found one through Pauric Tracey who was to have a fine game from mid-field. Crehan responded with another free, his fourth but Barnabas were starting to make a better fist of things in their midfield and half back lines. Another Tracy free helped to generate some more momentum for Barnabas but they were pinned back in the closing moments of the first half as Mitchels hit the attack button once more to land two points through their wing forwards Alan Brooks and Allen, the latter becoming more prominent as the link man across the field.
 
Facing a nine point deficit at the restart, a fast start was essential to instil confidence in the Barnabas ranks, and despite losing another point to Reddan from a quick Mitchels counter attack, Barnabas producted their best moments of the match in a five minute spell that began with a point from Magee before a clever Robins swich pass shifted the play across to colm McBride to fire over from 40 meters. Mitchels doubled their efforts though to quash any chance of a comeback though. Dillon producing a quick double save to keep Crehan and Reddan at bay before succumbing to Mitchels third goal as a scramble in the goalmouth resulted in a close range Reddan conversion. A slick pass from Chris Brough released Reddan for the point of the match, a sublime strike from wide of the left that dissected the posts. Barnabas substitute Barry Gaffney popped up with a close range point in response but the game petered out in the closing minutes with the result effectively confirmed. Mitchels grabbed two late goals, including a close range free emphatically lashed into the net by Kieran Boxwell, while McDonald received a second yellow to reduce Barnabas to 14 men in the final moments.
 
Man of the Match Willie Allen – Tireless display from the wing forward who was ever ready to follow the play and spring attacks for Mitchels.
 
Team and scorers
S Heannessy; S Conlan; D Heffernan; T Kelly; C Brough; D Kennedy; M O’Reagan; K Boxwell (1:0, 1f); R Curley; A Brooks (0:1); P Crehan (0:4, 3f); W Allen (0:1); O Long; J Reddan (3:2); D Kelly (2:3)
Subs: J Quin for Curley ht; B Reilly for Long 49m