Junior A Championship
Rathnew 3-19
Knockananna 4-08
Pearse Park
Eoin Horkan
For the second week in a row,
it was Pearse Park in Arklow that witnessed another junior game that went to
extra time as Rathnew prevailed against Knockananna
in the early game Sunday morning.
It was Rathnew who started
this game stronger as they tried to play quick direct ball into their full
forward line. This game plan proved beneficial as they fired over the opening
two points of the game from the boots of Jonah Graham and Mark Doyle. Rathnew
looked like they could pull away but then against the run of play their opponents
drove a long ball down the field. Joe
Byrne gathered the ball before firing into the net to give his side a lead.
Doyle levelled from play minutes later, as both teams were benefiting from long
balls into the forward line.
Knockananna full forward
Tristan Maher was starting to get his hands on the ball this resulted in him
tapping over to give his side a lead again. The villager’s response was quick
as wing back Jonson O’ Connor drove up from wing back to level the tie before
Jordon Graham gave his side the lead . Knockananna were goal hungry getting two
in the space of as many minutes as midfielder Jonathan Wybrant fired into the
net. Minutes later they won a penalty Stephen Hinchy stepped up, but his
penalty was well saved by Peter Dignam. Hinchy made no mistake with the rebound
to give his side a five point lead. With
the game starting to heat up as a contest, Knockananna
midfielder Wybrant was giving his marching orders for an off the ball incident.
As the game entered the final few minutes before the break both sides fired
over two points each . Doyle and Jordon Graham fired over frees with Hinchy
slotting a dead ball and an effort from play just on the stroke of half time.
This left five points between the sides at the break.
With the aid of the extra man
Rathnew started to push forward and made serious inroads into the score line.
Within ten minutes they had narrowed the gap to the minimum as they scored four
points in a row with the two Graham’s getting one each and Doyle getting the
other two. Knockananna were finding it difficult to trouble the scoreboard this
was until centre back Cathal Sheehan drove forward to extend his sides lead with
a well taken score. Both sides were finding scores harder to come by as the
half went on this was until Aaron Neill put a goal between the sides again.
Rathnew were now starting to empty their bench it was substitute Graham
Merrigan who narrowed the gap almost immediately. The oppositions final score
of normal time came from a dead ball from Kevin Kennedy. This goal lead looked like it would be enough
as Rathnew didn’t look like troubling the net. With two minutes to go another
scuffle broke out ending up in Jonah Graham revving a red card for striking an opponent . With the final
play of the game Doyle managed to get his fist to a high dropping ball to level
the tie with a goal . Sending the tie to extra time.
This wasn’t the end of the
drama as cards were being dished out all game it was missed in the Graham melee
that the villages centre forward Stuart Murphy had received his second yellow card but had stayed on the
pitch. This was eventually realized before extra time even though both sides
still got to restart with fifteen men Murphy wasn’t allowed back on.
Having more numbers on the
bench was a benefit to the villages as they started to gain control of the game
with three points in a row . Graham opened the scoring the in the half before
Merrigan and Doyle added to the tally . Kennedy replied with a solitary deal
ball. The final score of the half was from the ever dangerous Doyle who fired
into the net as his side were starting to push ahead.
The second half was much more
the same from the villagers as Merrigan pointed before Doyle finished his hat
trick with another goal. Sheehan finished his goal frenzy drilling the ball into the corner from a
twenty yard free. The aforementioned Doyle and Merrigan finished there scoring
with a free and an effort from play. Anthony Tracey came off the bench to
narrow the gap again for Knockananna. The final score of the game came from the
boot of Rathnew midfielder Darragh Hossey.
Subs: Graham Merrigan (0-4)
for Chris Healy, Euan Culbert for Jonson O’ Connor.
Knockananna: Thomas Whelan;
Patrick O’ Keefe, Garry Bradley, Ciaran Mooney; Sean Mooney, Cathal Sheehan,
(1-1 1 free) Padraig Lancaster; Jonathan Wybrant (1-0), Aaron Neill (0-1);
Kevin Kennedy (0-2 2 frees), Brian Leonard, Stephen Hinchy (1-2 1 pen 1 free);
Joe Byrne (1- 0), Tristan Maher, (0-1) Joseph Kelly.
Subs Used: Kevin Tyrell for
Joe Byrne, Anthony Tracy (0-1) for Sean Mooney.
Referee Max Molloy (Annacurra)
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