Murphy lays down law for Lannleire
LANNLEIRE comfortably brushed Naomh Malachi aside with a fine attacking display in Louth Village on Friday night.
When Lannleire midfielder Pearse Hawkins got on the end of sublime Colin Murphy pass to storm through the heart of the Malachi’s defence he still had a lot to do, but the youngster steadied himself and aimed a low shot to the bottom left corner.
The goal just before the interval effectively killed off the game as a contest and dramatically forced the Mals to change tactics opening the game up for centre forward Colin Murphy to take over.
The Courtbane men went manfor-man after the break, relinquishing Ronan Greene from sweeping duty and Murphy duly exploited the space to devastating effect, firing over nine second-half points.
It was a sparkling exhibition of point taking, each one better than the next, while sideline from the fourteen yard line illustrated his beaming confidence.
The game began tentatively, Malachi’s forward Dylan Rooney twisting and turning to find the net and level the game 1-0 to 0-3. Hawkins, Paul Doyle, from a 45, and Briain McGuinness on target for Lannleire.
John O’Connor’s troops responded with Bob Murphy firing to an empty net after the crafty forward claimed the ball just ahead of Malachi’s goalkeeper Christopher McCaughley. Cillian Gregory quickly added another and Ian Mulroy dropped deep to score his first of two first-half points.
The Malachi’s were still in the game at that point and found the target from a driving Jamie Kelly run, followed by a Colin Rooney free.
However, Hawkins then got his goal and his impressive midfield partner Paul Callan landed the first of his four points from play to make it 2-7 to 1-3 at half time.
Mals manager Thomas Duffy’s gambit looked to have gotten them on track with David Begley and Padraig Moley pulling two back in quick succession after the restart.
Nevertheless, Murphy gave a taster of what was to come with his first point on the end of quick counter attack and another from Callan again.
Both Rooneys landed frees and Greene reeled back the years with a superb long range effort. Yet, once Dunleer settled, Murphy got into his groove with three unanswered scores in a row.
Greene demonstrated his team’s honesty with another battling effort, along with Moley who was getting forward at will, only to be clawed back by a brace from Murphy again, including the aforementioned majestic sideline score.
Veteran Rooney notched over the last of Malachi’s real barricade, before the floodgates eventually opened up. Lannleire ended the game with a run of seven scores to Moley’s third point in the last few minutes.
Murphy, Callan and McGuinness all added to their tallies with the ease of a training drill and school-teacher Alan Murphy ended the game with a deserved point after putting in a trojan shift.
Overall Lannleire showed they can mix it, be it in a shootout or a cagey affair in the quarter finals, while the Malachi’s will fancy their chances of making it to the knockouts also.
LANNLEIRE: Liam Callan; Jason Torris, Paul McGeough, Paul Doyle; Briain McGuinness 0-2, Brendan McEvoy, Thomas Doyle 0-1 (1‘45’); Pearse Hawkins 1-1, Paul Callan 0-4; Cillian Gregory 0-2 (1f), Colin Murphy 0-9 (1f, 1 sl), Alan Murphy 0-1; Garry Monaghan, Ian Mulroy 0-2, Bob Murphy 1-1. Subs: Shane Kennedy for B Murphy (57), John King for G Monaghan (57).
NAOMH MALACHI: Christopher McCaughley; Jamie Kelly 0-1, David Rogers, Stephen Burns; Stephen Smith, David Begley 0-1, Ronan Greene 0-2; Padraig Moley 0-3, Christopher Smith; Donal Begley, Jack Kirwan, Dylan Rooney 1-1 (1f); Colin Hoey, Ronan McElroy 0-1f, Colin Rooney 0-4 (3f). Subs: Shane Rogers for C Hoey (24), Eamon Agnew for Donal Begley (51).
REFEREE: David Fedigan.