Shamrocks 2-10 Valley Rovers 1-08.
This second Round Robin football championship match was a welcome overdue opportunity for Shamrocks to reverse recent encounters with the Rovers outfit. The very warm sunny conditions made it extremely difficult and energy sapping to sustain a continuous attacking game for over 60 minutes, but the lads dug deep right from the throw in and got on the scoreboard without delay. A second minute excellently executed Harry Andrews goal after a good forward run and passing sequence from Dylan O’Flaherty was the catalyst for Shamrocks to manufacture an early lead that was subsequently never relinquished. Cannice Caffrey was on target for a couple of good points before Dylan struck the back of the net for our second goal midway through the half. Fergus O’Neill was on top form with his very accurate goal kicks continuously finding his own target men in space. He also saved two certain goal opportunities from the Rover’s forwards. Shamrocks were dominating the play throughout the field but squandered some hard won possession and were turned over on several occasions. The tight man marking full back line of Captain Kidney (centre) and Barry and Ronayne kept the Rovers scoring machine to two points from play and a total of five for the half hour. Roy Twomey and Cillian Hayes kept the points flowing with a couple of excellent scores. The centre field pairing of Sean Kidney and Mark Jordan combined well together and curtailed the threat from the ever increasing Rovers incursions into our half. The half time score of 2-04 to 0-05 was fully deserved and reflected the amount of possession and scoring opportunities we created.
As expected, the Rovers started strong in the second half. After another fine O’Neill save they managed, within 3 minutes of the restart to scramble the ball over the goal line to narrow the gap to two points. This was to be the lowest margin the Rovers were able to achieve over the total 70 minutes, including added injury time. The Team quickly settled back into their rhythm and an array of points by Caffrey, Twomey and Hayes still only kept the margin to a maximum of a single score due to some fine point scoring from the Rovers forwards. With approx 20 second half minutes elapsed it was time for some fresh legs to enter the fray. Derry Howard replaced full forward Senán Collins, whose ball distribution during his very active 50 minutes contributed to several scoring chances. Sean Kidney, who gave 110% throughout his mid field shift made way for Coby O’Grady to make his mark. Youthful Howard immediately justified his addition with some very swift attacking runs against the opposition backs. With only minutes remaining in normal time and a single score margin separating the teams, Hayes took off on a daring run and slotted over yet another fine point, increasing the difference to four. When Super Sunday Sub O’Grady increased the margin to five with a splendid point it was game over and mission completed.
Overall, this was a strong solid attacking football performance from all the 17 players competing on the day and a great boost to take forward to the next round. We now sit in pole position in Group 2 having won both games and are guaranteed number 1 qualification spot in the business end of the season. Belgooly and Valley Rovers still have to contest the second runner up spot in a couple of weeks time. All the players/subs from both teams deserve a massive amount of praise and appreciation for serving up a quality, competitive and tough 70 minutes football game in the extreme heat throughout the afternoon.
Thanks to Maor Uisce Bernard Hickey for arranging a plentiful supply of cooled liquid refreshments for the players. The referee Brian Coinry deserves a special word of appreciation in adopting a compassionate attitude in allowing adequate time, during natural breaks in play for players to hydrate.
Next championship day out is on Sunday 28th August when the hurler’s do battle with Ballygarvan to decide number 1 & 2 qualification spot.
Team : Fergus O’Neill, Dave Barry, Cathal Kidney, Gary Ronayne, Jason Browne, Mark Hitchmough, Sean Andrews, Mark Jordan, Sean Kidney, Cillian Hayes (0-03), Dylan O’Flaherty (1-00), Harry Andrews (1-00), Cannice Caffrey (0-04), Senán Collins and Roy Twomey (0-02).
Subs : Derry Howard, Coby O’Grady (0-01), James Lynam and Shane Downey.