Furze make tame exit
A CAMPAIGN that promised so much came to an abrupt end as Seneschalstown bowed out of the race for the Keegan Cup with barely a whimper in this one-sided SFC quarter-final at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday.
The Yellow Furze outfit were the only team to come through from the group stages with an unbeaten record and were expected to make a bold bid for outright honours.
However, they were well off the pace in this encounter and included in their paltry tally of five points was a single score from open play for the entire hour.
Donaghmore/Ashbourne only finished third in their group and had to come through a preliminary quarter-final, but it would be difficult to gauge their prospects of lifting the Keegan Cup for the first time on this showing.
Producing the goods against this Seneschalstown outfit wasn’t a particularly difficult task. Sean Kelly’s side had matters much their own way throughout and never had to go into overdrive at any stage in their efforts to book a semi-final date with Skryne.
The Ashbourne men started with the intention of laying down a marker in the early stages and by the end of the opening quarter had established a 1-5 to 0-1 lead.
Their football in that period was sharp and precise and they varied their play greatly which caused endless problems to the Seneschalstown rearguard.
Michael Deegan opened the scoring from a free and soon after Andrew Tormey outfielded Cormac Noonan before setting up Dylan Brady who produced a great finish to the net. Ashbourne continued to set the pace with further points from Brady and Paul Gilligan as Seneschalstown eventually got off the mark from a Bryan Clarke ‘45.
Deegan and the hard-working Tormey responded with points before Seneschalstown enjoyed what was to be their best spell of the game. They registered three successive points in four minutes, with Brian Sheridan (two frees) and Joe Sheridan on the mark.
Deegan accounted for Ashbourne’s only score of the second quarter to lead 1-6 to 0-4 at the break.
Despite Seneschalstown’s shortcomings throughout the opening half there was little to indicate that the match would eventually turn into a procession.
Bryan Clarke converted a closerange free on 32 minutes to get his side off the mark in the second half. The anticipated Seneschalstown rally never materialised, however, and they failed to add to their tally for the remainder of the game.
Brady responded with a point, Conor Carton added another and after Carton toe-poked to the net on 38 minutes to leave it 2-8 to 0-5 it ended the game as a contest.
Seneschalstown threw in the towel at that stage and the little fizz there was in the game completely evaporated. Daragh McGovern, Conor Carey, Deegan, Brady, substitute Ciaran Ellis and Paul Gilligan continued to pile on scores.
To complete Seneschalstown’s misery Paul Carey was sent off in the final quarter for a trip on Ciaran Ellis. The wing back received a black card for that offence, after already picking up a yellow.