Balto cruise past Shamrocks

BALTINGLASS SHAMROCKS 3-21 1-2

A crushing of group team Shamrocks by Baltinglass provided Bobby Millar’s side with an explosive start to the Senior football championship in 2000.

The combination team featuring players from Ballymanus and Knockananna offered little or no challenge to the Baltinglass men with a final score of 3-21 to 1-2 providing an accurate reflection of the gulf in standard between the two teams on the day.

With little or no preparation enjoyed by the Shamrocks it was always going to be a tough ask to tackle a Baltinglass side with major ambitions of stopping Rathnew who were going for five titles on the trot at the turn of the millennium.

Baltinglass took a 0-15 to 0-1 lead into the break with superb performances from Kevin O’Brien, Anthony Nolan and Paul Garrigan, Joe Clancy with Shamrocks’ only score of the half in the 11th minute.

Shamrocks switched Knockananna’s John Paul Foley from centre back to full-back to try and stop O’Brien but there was little the former Wicklow Minor could do.

The second half was barely two minutes old when Anthony Nolan bagged the first of his two goals. A point from substitute Micheal Stapleton and a goal from his brother Raymond was all the Shamrocks had to show for their second-half exploits while a late Paul Garrigan goal topped off a fine shift for the Baltinglass men.

Baltinglass: Ken Quirke; Derek Byrne, Brian Whelan, Damien McMahon; Colin Dalton (0-1), Hugh Kenny (0-1), Kieran Foley (0-1); Billy Kenny, Raymond Danne; Shane Wall (0-2), Paul Fleming, Paul Garrigan (1-2); Anthony Nolan (2-5), Kevin O’Brien (0-7), Sean O’Brien. Subs: Eoin MaMahon (0-2) for S. O’Brien, Ronan Murphy for B. Kenny, Billy Nolan for K. O’Brien.

Shamrocks: Sean Hughes (Knockananna); Niall Harmon (Ballymanus), Tom Byrne (Ballymanus), Declan Whelan (Knockananna); PJ Byrne (Ballymanus), John Paul Foley (Knockananna), Anthony Treacy (Knockananna); Ciaran Clancy (Ballymanus), Paul Lancaster (Knockananna); Joe Clancy (0-1) (Ballymanus), John Byrne (Ballymanus), John Harmon (Ballymanus); David Langrell (Ballymanus), Raymond Stapleton (1-0) (Ballymanus), Brendan Lawrence (Knockananna). Subs: Paul O’Neill (Knockananna) for D. Langrell, Micheal Stapleton (0-1) (Ballymanus) for P. Lancaster, Alan Carthy (Ballymanus) for D Whelan, Patrick Treacy (Knockananna) for C Clancy.

Referee: Ian O’Brien (Wicklow)