Wicklow give lesson to students
WICKLOW 5-31 IT TALLAGHT 2-7
JUST the 10-47 for Wicklow over the last couple of weekends, Andy O’Brien and Christy Moorehouse with 7-30 between them. Not bad.
The game was over as a contest after only a few minutes, 1-06 to a goal by the tenth minute, 1-17 to 1-01 at half time.
IT Tallaght were good enough to at least fulfil the fixture but they only had fifteen players and their manager was like any junior manager in Wicklow on a Wednesday or Thursday night tearing his hair out with players not turning up.
There were some very good Wicklow performances: Eamonn Kearns manned the centre back position well and John Connors pitched in with a couple of good points from midfield. In the full forward line George O’Brien was particularly good at winning the ball coming into him and deserved more than his 1-01 while beside him Andy did his thing of terrorising any poor full back in his vicinity.
However, as coach Michael Neary said afterwards, it was difficult to get excited about the result.
The scoring started after twenty seconds, Andy O’Brien taking the difficult option of shooting over his shoulder from a difficult angle.
Moorehouse added a point from play and a free to make it three points in three minutes and then George O’Brien scored the first goal of the afternoon.
Robert Fitzgerald gladly caught a shot that dropped short and had as much time as he liked to survey his options.
The ball went up the wing to Enda Donohoe and on again to Mikey Lee. He hit a glorious pass across the field to Moorehouse who took it and accelerated away from his man in the same movement. He drew the defender and passed it to O’Brien for the goal.
It was one of Lee’s few opportunities to get on the ball before he hobbled off with an ankle injury in the tenth minute.
While he didn’t score his work rate engineered a point for Moorehouse when he pressurised wing back Adam Mitchell into a poor clearance.
IT Tallaght got a goal in the eighth minute to get on the scoreboard. Wing forward Adrian Clabby, their best player, caught a puck out and broke through the defence to get a shot off at goal.
Fitzgerald saved it but Adam Doyle was first to the rebound and raised the green flag.
They would only score another point in the first half, a Clabby free in the 21st minute, but they did have chances for their shooting to let them down.
Fitzgerald also atoned for the concession of a penalty by saving Clabby’s shot.
IT Tallaght weren’t helped by the sending off of corner forward Darragh Pepper for striking Martin O’Brien with his hurl in the seventeenth minute. Pepper had caused O’Brien problems up to then by winning the first three balls that came his way and reacted to a challenge that earned O’Brien a yellow card for his troubles.
A number of the Wicklow scores came from good Wicklow forward pressure that forced the student defence into losing possession or clearing the ball to a Wicklow man.
Andrew Kavanagh and Padraig Doyle did the unglamorous work to regain possession for Wicklow on numerous occasions and were rewarded with getting on the scoresheet themselves.
The goals came in the second half with Andy O’Brien getting his first in the 40th minute.
The ball had been hit in long to him but it looked like the chance for a goal had been lost by the full back’s tackle.
He floated a poor enough pass out to George O’Brien that didn’t seem necessary when he could have taken an easy point but he had other ideas.
He stopped while George collected possession, lulling the full back into a false sense of security, before a sudden burst of speed gave him a couple of yards of space to take the ball back and unleash a rocket into the top corner from 14 metres.
You have to laugh at how easy he made it look.
Seamus Murphy and Michael Neary took the opportunity in the second half to empty their entire bench and have a look at some of their players.
James Cranley did well and impressed, if perhaps he tried to do too much.
Neary gave his reaction a couple of hours after the match and spoke about how happy the management were with the victory.
“It was a chance to get more game time for the players. We had to win the match even if they weren’t very strong.
“We were pleased with the shooting and some of the performances like Eamonn Kearns, Garry Byrne and George O’Brien. We have nearly forty players training and it was good to get everyone out there today and have a look at the substitutes.
“We have huge competition for places. We’d like to get into the final just to have another match at least.”
Neary also touched on some of the improvements that could be made before looking towards the league.
“We’d have liked to have been tighter in defence and more clinical, especially in the first half. We had a couple of goal chances that we didn’t convert.
“Our first two league matches are very important, away to Roscommon before being at home to Mayo.
“We need to win those to set us up for the league and give us a chance. We’d like to be competitive again and not be in a relegation battle at least.”
It’s Trinity next weekend and Wicklow will go in as favourites.
They’ll face tougher opposition in the coming months but the win over IT Tallaght will be good for the confidence.
Scorers – Wicklow: Christy Moorehouse (8f, 1 65) 0-16; Andy O’Brien 3-04; James Cranley, George O’Brien 1-01 each; Andrew Kavanagh, John Connors 0-02 each; Eamonn Kearns, Padraig Doyle, Enda Donohoe, Eugene Dunne, Gorge Connors 0-01 each.
IT Tallaght: Adrian Clabby (7f) 0-07; Adam Doyle 2-00.
Wicklow: Robert Fitzgerald; Oisin Furlong, Warren Kavanagh, Martin O’Brien; Garry Byrne, Eamonn Kearns, Peter Keane; Ronan Keddy, John Connors; Christy Moorehouse, Padraig Doyle, Enda Donohoe; George O’Brien, Andy O’Brien, Mikey Lee. Subs: Andrew Kavanagh for Mikey Lee (10 mins); Tiernan Mellon for Enda Donohoe, Eugene Dunne for Martin O’Brien (both 46 mins); Joey Driver for Andrew Kavanagh, George Connors for Padraig Doyle (both 48 mins); Wayne Kinsella for Ronan Keddy (50 mins); Ruairi O’Neill for Peter Keane, James Cranley for Andy O’Brien (both 52 mins); Michael Connors for Garry Byrne (55 mins); Paddy Mellon for George O’Brien, Peter O’Reilly for Robert Fitzgerald (both 57 mins).
IT Tallaght: Keith Byrne; Makwan Moildi, John Keane, Jack McDonald; Adam Mitchell, Paul O’Brien, Graham Proctor; Adam Doyle, Ciaran Whelan; Joey Canon, Conor Byrne, Adrian Clabby; Darragh Pepper, James Cavanagh, Danny Scully.
Referee: Antoin Keating (Dublin)