Éire
Óg Greystones 2-12
A ten-point
haul from Gavin Weir saw Glenealy run out comfortable winners on Saturday
evening in Arklow.
From
the referee's opening whistle Glenealy took complete control of this opening
round game. They had taken a two-point lead early on with strikes from Gavin
Weir and Danny Staunton.
The
first major turning point of the game arrived eight minutes in when Weir
controlled a ball before rounding the defender but his goal-bound effort was
kept out by opposition net minder Dan O’ Neill who touched it over the bar. In
the same play, Éire Óg center back Stephen Kelly came off with an ankle injury
, this led to a number of positional changes for his side. In the next play a
long ball into the Éire Óg square was bundled into the net by Gary Hughes with
ten minutes on the clock.
Once
this purple patch ended James Cranley free after a great run James Cahill
narrowed the gap slightly before Hughes added a minor to his tally. The second
quarter of the half began with another Cranley free for the north Wicklow side.
Glenealy were finding scores easier to come by as two Weir dead balls followed
by a final effort by James Byrne.
With
six minutes left on the clock Staunton managed to catch a ball from goalkeeper
Driver to slot over; he did the same moments later in between an effort from
Paddy Marrinan. The final score of the half came from the free takers Weir and
Cranley.
The
second half started off with a bang as recent transfer back to Greystones Andy
Walsh rose higher over Warren Kavanagh before rattling the back of the net,
within a minute Walsh nearly doubled his goal tally, but his effort flew over
the bar. Another Pooch (Cranley) dead
ball had put Éire Óg right back into this tie. A change of markers on Walsh
seemed to change the game as Sam O’ Dowd kept Walsh from causing any more
damage. At the other end Staunton doubled his account for the game in between
another effort from Alan Driver.
The
response from Greystones was immediate as Pooch moved out to the half forward
line to raise two white flags. There was confusion in the ground as the
scoreboard had Glenealy much further ahead. Just as it looked like the momentum
was swinging back in the favor of the north Wicklow side the opposition had
other ideas. Staunton rose highest before laying off a ball to team mate
Matthew Traynor who drove through the defense before firing home the second
major of the day. With a quarter of the game to go both sides started to empty
the bench and Cormac Byrne goal scorer from last night made an immediate impact
firing over to extend his side's advantage before the aforementioned Weird
added two more to his tally for the day.
This
game and especially the final ten minutes of this tie turned into a shootout
between Weir and Cranley. It was Cranley who scored first before Weir cancelled
his effort out. It was then the turn of Marrinan to get in on the act. The last five minutes were quite exciting as
the two sharp shooters kept slotting over. In what was the final play of normal
time Walsh caught his final ball of the game before being dragged down. This
led to a penalty which was expertly dispatched by O’ Neill who came up from his net. In almost a fitting
ending to the game Weir made sure his side would come out victorious while he
would finish on double figures.
Éire
Óg Greystones Dan O’ Neill (1-0p); Kristin Flynn, Peter Keane,Tom Meyler; Paddy
Igoe, Stephen Kelly, Daniel Burns; Alec Bartak, James Cahill; Paddy Marrinan
(0-2), Billy Cuddihy, Luke Dorgan; James Cranley (0-9 5fs), Mick Walsh, Andy
Walsh(1-1)
Subs
Used: Anto Byrne for Stephen Kelly, Peter Quinn for Andy Walsh, David Lynch for
Luke Dorgan, Josh Barry for Kristin Flynn.
Glenealy:
Joey Driver Jnr Cian O’ Neill, Warren Kavanagh, Ronan Manley; Tj O’Neill. Sam
O’ Dowd, Andrew Lynch; Matthew Traynor(1-0),Danny Staunton(0-5);Gavin Weir
(0-10),Alan Driver (0-1),James Byrne (0-1);Gary Hughes(1-1) ,Michael Óg O’
Neill, Jonathan O’Neill Jnr
Subs
Used; Cormac Byrne(0-1) for Jonathan O’ Neill Jnr,Thomas Doyle for Warren
Kavanagh, Jack Kavanagh for James Byrne, Paul O’ Brien for Tj O’ Neill, Lorcan
Byrne for Andrew Lynch
Referee
Chris Canavan
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