‘Lang’ to the rescue
Padraig’s late peach saves the day for Knockananna
TINAHELY KNOCKANANNA 0-13 0-13
A late point from midfielder Padraig Lancaster helped Knockananna earn a draw against Tinahely in the opening-round clash of the sides in the Philip Doyle Junior ‘B’ Football Championship in Tinahely last Thursday evening.
Lancaster’s point came after a superb second-half showing from John Roche’s men after they had looked in dire trouble early in the first half with Tinahely hitting the ground at an impressive gallop and opening up a six-point to no score lead after 11 minutes.
The pitch in Tinahely was like a carpet ahead of this game that drew a decent crowd on a dry but very dull evening. In fact, the second half was played in tricky twilight conditions where the phrase ‘the evenings are bet’ sprang to mind.
The running power of this young Tinahely second string caused Knockananna all sorts of trouble in the opening quarter. Points from Niall Gorman, Anthony Phelan (free), Austin Brennan, marauding corner-back Adam Hadden and two pointed frees from centre forward David Blake after lazy fouls from the Knockananna rearguard suggested that the visitors were heading for a bit of a trimming.
But up stepped Darren Flynn, who showed his comrades the way as he took the game to the home side. The corner-forward popped a free over after a handling error, added another after he was fouled by John Blake who was shown a yellow card by referee Jason Smyth and added a third after full-forward Damien Byrne was fouled when he received a ball from Garry Bradley who had made a super mark around the middle of the field.
By this stage Knockananna had shifted Johnny Wybrant back to midfield from centre forward in a direct swap with Tristan Maher as they looked to gain more of a foothold in that middle third.
But Tinahely were still looking the sharper. A lovely score from full-forward Padraig Murphy pushed Martin Ging’s men out to a 0-7 to 0-3 lead. Murphy’s battle with Knockananna full-back Brian Leonard was a good one with the former Rathvilly man proving more than capable of dictating affairs in front of his goal.
He coughed up a foul moments later, however, and David Blake split the posts to make it 0-8 to 0-3.
Knockananna were starting to assert themselves at this stage but they were fouling far too much in key sectors and earned two yellow cards (Johnny Wybrant and Aaron O’Neill) in the last five minutes of the first half.
Derek ‘Shamrock’ Kavanagh made it double scores thanks to a beast of a breaking ball from Garry Bradley and Darren Flynn added another free won by himself to close the gap to three.
David Blake would have the last say of the half from another free after a foul on Austin Brennan with the Knockananna defence sailing fairly close to the edge of black card territory at times.
John Roche sent in Darragh Gregan for Aaron O’Neill at the break and Knockananna started superbly with Darren Flynn bombing over to make it 0-9 to 0-6.
Loose defending allowed Tinahely’s Cian O’Neill raise a white flag after super work from Anthony Phelan around the middle and a tasty exchange between David Dillon and Daniel Hedderman but Knockananna midfielder Tristan Maher dropped over a bomb from distance moments later thanks to powerful play from centre back James Leonard who really came into this game as the clock ticked on.
A foul on Damien Byrne provided Darren Flynn with a chance to close the gap to two and he did so with aplomb.
A foul by Johnny Wybrant on Daniel Ging and some backchat gave David Blake the easiest of tap overs and then Tinahely had their best goal chance of the game, three of them, in fact.
It started with Daniel Hedderman winning the Knockananna kick-out. He charged forward and fed Padraig Murphy around the 45. He played a beautiful ball over the top right into the arms of Cian O’Neill who looked to have only Joe Kelly to beat but for some wonderful last-ditch defending from Ronan Byrne. Austin Brennan was first to the breaking ball and he hoofed it towards goal, it came off Ronan Byrne, flew up and came back off the crossbar where it was gathered by David Blake. Blake recycled to Padraig Murphy who lobbed in a lethal ball across the face of the goal where Cian O’Neill and Austin Brennan were left completely unmarked but O’Neill opted to punch the ball rather than catch and kick and he connected poorly and the ball bounced harmlessly wide much to the relief of the stressed Knockananna defence.
The gap was back to four when David Blake pointed another free but Darren Flynn returned it to two with two sweetly struck frees just before the second water break while Damien Byrne and Paddy Byrne switched positions.
Things looked bleak for the visitors when Ronan Byrne was shown a black card for a foul on Daniel Hedderman with 10 to go. Kevin Tyrrell was introduced for Noel Byrne.
A foul by Brian Leonard on Anthony Phelan saw David Blake point Tinahely’s last score of the game after 25 minutes and from here on in it was stellar stuff from John Roche’s men.
Kevin Tyrrell sold the sweetest of dummies to his marker and drilled over a stunner off the outside of his right. Derek Kavanagh hoisted over another humdinger to close the gap to single point and then midfielder Padraig Lancaster fired over the equaliser off his right with two minutes to go.
Tinahely came hunting for the killer blow. The impressive Anthony Phelan dropped in a bomb on top of substitute Brian Hickey but goalkeeper Joe Kelly saved the day while James Leonard cleared the dangerous breaking ball.
Both sides pressed for the winner but time ran out and the final whistle brought an end to a very entertaining battle between two very decent sides.
Tinahely had quality performers in Niall Gorman, John Blake, Daniel Hedderman, Anthony Phelan, David Blake and Cian O’Neill.
Knockananna were superbly served by Darren Flynn, Garry Bradley, Johnny Wybrant, James and Brian Leonard and Padraig Lancaster while substitutes Daire Gregan and Kevin Tyrrell really impressed.