VILLAGE POWER ON
Ugly scenes erupt in play-off clash in Joule Park Aughrim
RATHNEW HOLLYWOOD 2-10 1-4
YOU wouldn’t have needed a Hollywood scriptwriter to put together the plot of Sunday’s unexpected play-off between Rathnew and Hollywood in Joule Park Aughrim because the writing was on the wall before referee John Keenan had even thrown in the ball.
A match that should never have had to have been played in the first place danced perilously close to not finishing at all after more ugly scenes erupted in the county grounds and it could be, potentially, very expensive after Rathnew lost Graham Merrigan to a straight red and the entire fracas was captured on video.
A minutes silence in honour of the late Julieanne Bell from Hollywood who passed away earlier in the week was held before throw in, before both sides set about securing a path to a county semi-final with the losers heading for a winner takes all clash with Baltinglass this Sunday.
Things were running swimmingly with both sides playing some nice football when the trouble began at the end of the first quarter.
Nicky Mernagh opened the scoring for Rathnew but his effort was answered by Thomas Burke after nine minutes before Leighton Glynn escaped the attentions of Shane Kelly to point two superb scores in 120 seconds.
Hollywood hit back sweetly when Tony Hannon collected a Robert Kelly ball before firing home past Peter Dignam to fire Hollywood into the lead at 1-1 to 0-3.
Then things took a very negative turn. A ball sent up the field from the Hollywood half was knocked out over the sideline by Thomas Burke with Paul Merrigan in close proximity. Burke held on to the ball, possibly thinking that it had come off Merrigan but Merrigan went to retrieve the ball and both men became entangled down in front of the stands on the Rathnew 45.
With that incident looking to have passed, Tony Hannon appeared to exchange words with linesman Eugene O’Brien and O’Brien called referee John Keenan over to the sideline as the officials were not wearing their communication units on the day.
It was during this delay in play that players came in contact with each other out on the field with Hollywood’s Ciaran Tyrrell and Rathnew‘s Theo Smyth exchanging words before Damien Power intervened on Smyth’s behalf and he and Tyrrell then began to wrestle.
This was quickly dispersed, and Tony Hannon was shown a yellow card before Hannon and Nicky Mernagh were seen to have words before the play got underway with the Rathnew sideline ball.
However, the ball hadn’t travelled to the half-way line when more trouble started involving Rathnew defenders and Hollywood forwards and while that was happening another incident took place around the 65 where a Hollywood mentor and several Rathnew players became involved in a pushing and shoving match.
Eventually the mentor was ordered from the field and two yellow cards were shown to Ross O’Brien and Cian Tyrrell for an earlier incident and John Keenan tried to restart the game with a throw ball with all players involved in the incidents still in the vicinity.
The peace lasted all of five seconds until Hollywood’s Robert Houlihan was fouled along the sideline and from here things turned particularly sour with two separate incidents ongoing and blows appearing to be delivered by players from both sides, including one kick.
John Keenan flashed a red card at Rathnew‘s Graham Merrigan, but still the argy-bargy continued until finally - and with no punishments for the blows struck in the row - the game got underway almost seven minutes after the ball had crossed the sideline on the far side of the pitch.
Hollywood broke up the field and almost had a goal only for Thomas Burke to blaze his shot off the crossbar and over for a point to make it 1-3 to 0-3.
That’s how it would stay at the break, but you didn’t need a degree in rocket science to know that with the wind and with the blood up anything other than a Village win was going to be a spectacular turn up for the books.
Rathnew‘s resurgence began in the first minute when Eddie Doyle pointed. Harry Murphy had sent in Mark Doyle at the break and it was going to be route one for some of the time at least in the second half.
Jody Merrigan reduced Holly- wood’s lead to a single point and then levelled the game before Leighton Glynn sent them ahead and they would never lose that lead again.
A stunning goal from a penalty from Leighton Glynn after Harry Wilson had been adjudged to have foot blocked Mark Doyle left Rathnew in complete control and there was only one team out on the field for the rest of the second half.
Leighton Glynn pointed, and Mark Doyle fired home their second goal to kill this game as a contest and from here Rathnew cantered to victory.
Important to note that Rathnew achieved this without the services of midfield maestro James Stafford.
Harry Murphy’s men take their place in the semi-final along with neighbours St Pat’s. Hollywood, without Mick Murray on the line on the day, will need to regroup quickly ahead of their clash with Baltingl ass.
Scorers – Rathnew: Leighton Glynn 1-4, Eddie Doyle 1-1 (1f), Jody Merrigan 0-2, Nicky Mernagh 0-1, Danny Staunton 0-1, Mark Doyle 0-1.
Hollywood: Tony Hannon 1-1 (f), Thomas Burke 0-3 (1f).
Peter Dignam; Paul Merrigan, Damien Power, Jamie Snell; JT Moorehouse, Ross O’Brien, John Manley; Jody Merrigan, Theo Smyth; Nicky Mernagh, Graham Merrigan, Danny Staunton; Philly Murphy, Eddie Doyle, Leighton Glynn. Subs: Mark Doyle for P Murphy (H/T).
Ian Burke; Shane Kelly, Harry Wilson, Sean O’Keeffe; Conor Burke, Mikey Healy, Robert Houlihan; Cian Tyrrell, Ciaran Tyrrell; Matthew Kelly, Robert Kelly, Keith Traynor; Stephen Kearney, Tony Hannon, Thomas Burke. Subs: Niall Clarke for S Kearney, Stephen Cullen for S O’Keeffe, Paul Kelly for S Kelly.
John Keenan (Aughrim)