Champs ‘Crawl’ past Mary’s in low-key repeat

SENIOR champions, Sean O’Mahony’s began the defence of their crown with a one-point win over St Mary’s in a repeat of the 2016 final at Dunleer on Saturday evening.

In a Group 1 game that failed to produce the excitement of last September’s encounter, there was a familiar feel to proceedings as the Ardee side looked to have victory within their grasp only for the Point Road side to come from behind to claim the spoils.

After a slow start, the Dundalk outfit trailed by four points at the end of the first quarter and looked very much out of sorts at that stage. However, they managed to get themselves out of trouble with a display that was clinical and professional rather than flamboyant, but nonetheless had all the hallmarks champions.

The decisive score was also vintage O’Mahonys and saw Conor Crawley, not for the first time on his side’s remarkable journey in recent years, rise highest to expertly flick Conor Finnegan’s centre past the stranded Peter Duffy.

That put Alan Craven’s team ahead for the first time in the game and they used their experience and craft to hold out for victory which was secured by a late point from the impressive Stephen Fisher.

It was a bitterly disappointing end for the Marys who began in such impressive style and had their opponents stretched for the opening quarter.

Although Dean Matthews’ opening point was cancelled out by a Conor Finnegan free, it was all Ardee after that as their dominance around the middle allowed them to create space in front of goal. Ronan Carroll was proving to be a real threat on the square and he edged his side in front before Mark Fay, Paudy Clarke and Alan Kirk followed up to make it 0-5 to 0-1 on nine minutes.

Stephen Fisher landed a much needed point but Carroll responded at the other end to leave the O’Mahonys very much under pressure and they were lucky to escape when John Bingham dragged a shot wide of the post. However, at that stage the Point Road side circled the wagons and started by getting numbers back to shore up the defence.

Having stifled the Marys threat for ten minutes they then began to edge forward and scores from Keith McLaughlin and Fisher had them back in the game.

There was a crucial moment just before the break when a Kian Moran effort looked to have gone over the bar but was signalled wide. Straight from the restart the O’Mahonys broke forward and Fisher pointed to cut the gap to 0-6 to 0-5 at half time.

The Marys were rocking at that stage and the wily O’Mahonys turned the screw by landing the knock-out blow with Crawley’s goal on 40 minutes. The Marys did get back on terms with points from Kirk and Paudy Clarke, but Finnegan restored the lead at 1-6 to 0-8 on 47 minutes.

The game threatened to boil over in the closing ten minutes as some of referee John Murphy’s decisions rankled with both sets of players. Although Darren Clarke levelled from a free, Fisher landed what proved to be the winning point with another fine score on 25 minutes.

Including injury time, the Marys still had eight minutes to find the equaliser but at that stage they had lost their composure and kicked three late wides as the O’Mahonys held out.

The Ardee men will now be hoping that the O’Mahonys can do them a favour by defeating St Josephs in the final game to allow them progress to the quarter-finals.

SEAN O’MAHOYS: Seamus Quigley; Christopher O’Neill, Ronan Byrne, Michael Clarke; Keith McLaughlin 0-1, John O’Brien, Liam Dullaghan; Shane Brennan, Conor Martin; Conor Finnegan 0-2, Ben McLaughlin, Jonathan Connolly; Stephen Fisher 0-4, Conor Crawley 1-0, Stephen Kilcoyne. Subs: Barry Mackin for C Finnegan, Colin Finan for K McLaughlin.

ST MARYS: Peter Duffy; Brendan Matthews, Eamon Callaghan, Conor Keenan; Niall Eccles, Eimhin Keenan, John Bingham; Ronan Carroll 0-2, Robbie Leavy; Kian Moran, Darren Clarke 0-1, Mark Fay 0-1; Dean Matthews 0-1, Paudy Clarke 0-2, Alan Kirk 0-2. Subs: Barry McCoy for B Matthews, Jamie Rooney for A Kirk, Ryan Rooney for D Clarke.

REFEREE: John Murphy