Too Little Too Late
30th July, 2002 - Football Challenge Match
Burlingame 1-15 St Josephs 1-11

As so often happens, St Josephs took time to get into their stride and tear into the game during this challenge match at Millbrae on Tuesday night. Burlingame were first to mark the scoreboard and it took a good five minutes for San Jose to open their account with a point by Paul Lavelle.

Burlingame maintained their lead thanks in no small part to almost nonexistent marking and sloppy passing by Josephs. There were some occasions when San Jose managed to re-take possession only to give it away a few seconds later creating a lot of opportunities for their opponents. This resulted in Josephs having as many shots at the target under their belt as Burlingame had scores. Only in the last ten minutes of the first half did anything resembling a proper attempt to take control of the game materialize which culminated in Ross McMahon scoring the equalising point. However the best efforts of some players were not matched by all and Burlingame were in the lead by a point at 1-6 to 1-5 at the end of a first half in which it seemed that not everyone’s heart was in the game. Burlingame could quite easily have been six points ahead at this stage.

The second half saw the Silicon Valley men revitalized. They got off to a clinical start with good tight marking, more attention paid to accurate passing and a much more intense effort all round. It would seem that the mistakes from the first half had been learned from. Several substitutions were made to ensure that everyone on the panel got a run in preparation for the upcoming championship game at the weekend. Willie Maher replaced Noel Dempsey, Mark McCall later went on for Willie Maher, Steve Shannon relieved Darragh McCabe, Paul Morrissey made way for Kevin Magee and Niall Lyne took over from Thomas Keane.

There were some fine performances from Dave Keefe and Paul Lavelle in mid-field, Fergal Finnan who patrolled the back lines like a determined border patrol guard, Colm Brazil who was scoring from the unlikeliest of angles and positions, Brian Kerney slicing through the mid-field and from Ross McMahon who scored 1-4. However the marking was still not one hundred percent and there were a few careless mistakes being made. The punishment for careless passing was, more often than not, a point for Burlingame.

In the end it was too late to undo the damage done to the scoreline in the first half and Burlingame won by 1-15 to 1-11. If Josephs have learned anything from this experience, it is that there is no place for complacency or weakness in even the most minor of games to say nothing of the fiercely contested championship and full commitment to training is essential.