Laragh march on to the Junior A decider
LARAGH seal their place in the Junior A football championship final thanks to a stunning performance against Valleymount in Joule Park, Aughrim, last Saturday evening.
Decky Byrne’s men were always considered a serious threat to the Valleymount men, who had recorded some quality wins on what was been a good year for the lakesiders coming into this game. And that threat was realised with devastating effectiveness on Saturday when Laragh outfoxed their opponents and scored three sucker punches of goals at key times.
The playing of Steve Olohan as a sweeper in front of his fullback line was a key move by Decky Byrne and his selectors. After Vallleymount’s superb start where they fired over two sweet points from the boots of James Fitzpatrick and Stephen Byrne, Olohan’s presence began to be felt and it helped to stagnate the Valleymount attack for much of the first half.
Laragh’s reply to the opening burst from Valleymount was immediate and brutal. Valleymount came calling again but Peter Merrigan broke the ball down and possession was eventually handed to Myles Conway. The wily Conway looked up from inside his own half and delivered a peach of a ball just over the top of Keith Lawler and Eamon Mahon. Mark Miley had created an acre of space in front of the Valleymount goal by bringing Steven Cahill out to the stand side and when the ball went over the heads of Lawler and Mahon there was only going to be one winner. Lawler lost Mahon and dribbled the ball towards Paul Miley before slipping it sweetly underneath the Valleymount netminder for the game’s opening goal and a mighty boost for the Laragh men.
Worryingly for Valleymount, it would be a long time before they would score again and by the time Stephen Byrne did grab their third point of the day, Laragh were 1-05 to 0-03 ahead thanks to points from the superb John Nolan (three, one free), Mark Miley, and the very effective Keith Lawler as Laragh’s organisation and clever play had Valleymount looking lost in terms of a plan b.
That period after Stephen Byrne pointed Valleymount’s third point was decent for the lakesiders but they could only register two wides while Decky Byrne shifted his troops around up front with John Nolan going to the edge of the square.
A delightful piece of skill allowed the aforementioned John Nolan the space to run in on the Valleymount goal for Laragh’s second major of the day. Nolan flicked the ball over the head of Eamon Mahon out on the sideline on the stand side and the Laragh sharpshooter galloped in towards Paul Miley’s goal before cheekily threading the ball underneath the Valleymount netminder for the second goal of the day and a terrible blow to the Valleymount moments from the half-time break.
They were offered some home when full-forward Jack Slattery walloped over three quick points before the break to leave the score at 2-06 to 0-06 at half-time and the sense that all was not lost for Valleymount despite having played almost none of the football.
Valleymount absolutely owned the opening seven minutes of the second half but their return of one point from four shots at the posts was damaging to their cause and after eight minutes, instead of being within two points of Laragh, where they would have been if they had converted their chances, they found themselves eight points down after Damien Hanlon had placed the ball beautifully to the bottom corner of the net of the dressing room end goals to make it 3-06 to 0-07.
Part of the reason for Valleymount’s lack of success in front of goal was the Laragh workrate. It was savage. Peter Merrigan, Brendan Ward, Craig McCoy, Ciaran Byrne, Gary Cullen, and Andrew Kenny worked their socks off with help from David McDonald, Damien Hanlon and Steve Olohan while Keith Lawler and Myles Conway also offered assistance in their own half at times.
Valleymount had made a bundle of changes to try and turn this game around. They introduced Shane Browne and Glen Cullen among others and while they did enjoy a very healthy spell in the second half with points from Slattery, Brian Flynn, Shane Browne, James Fitzpatrick and Shane Flynn, they couldn’t get in for the goals they badly needed and Damien Hanlon’s beauty of a point at the death wrapped up a superb performance from Laragh and they march on to the Junior A final where they will meet the men of Kilcoole in what promises to be a serious belter of a football match.
Scorers – Laragh: Keith Lawler 1-02, John Nolan 1-04 (1f), Damien Hanlon 1-01 (1f), Mark Miley 0-01, Craig McCoy 0-01, Myles Conway 0-01.
Valleymount: James Fitzpatrick 0-03 (1f), Jack Slattery 0-03 (1f), Shane Flynn 0-02, Stephen Byrne 0-02, Shane Browne 0-01, Brian Flynn 0-01.
Laragh: James Nolan; Brendan Ward, Peter Merrigan, Ciaran Byrne; Craig McCoy, Gary Cullen, Andrew Kenny; David McDonald, Damien Hanlon; John Nolan, Steve Olohan, Dan Power; Myles Conway, Mark Miley, Keith Lawler. Subs: Aaron Lynham for D Power, Liam McEvoy for M Conway, Eamon Kennedy for J Nolan.
Valleymount: Paul Miley; Eamon Mahon, Steven Cahill, Darragh Browne; Mark Carroll, Brian Flynn, William Kavanagh; Stephen Flanagan, Declan Cahill; Brian Miley, Stephen Byrne, Liam Miley; Shay Geoghegan, Jack Slattery, James Fitzpatrick. Subs: Shane Flynn for E Mahon, Glen Cullen for D Browne, Shane Browne for B Miley; Mick Richardson for S Geoghegan, Adam Condon for S Flynn.
Referee: Anthony Nolan (Balt
inglass)