Hollow top the table
Fitzhenry free seals draw with Ferns
HOLLOW ROVERS 2-12 FERNS ST. AIDAN’S 4-6
HOLLOW ROVERS topped the Greenstar Under-20 football championship Division 3B group on scoring difference after sharing the spoils with fellow pace-setters Ferns St. Aidan’s in Coolree on Wednesday.
Top scorer Cian Fitzhenry held his nerve to kick the leveller from a free four minutes into added time, seconds after referee Martin Quigley punished a Ferns defender for encroaching as Gavin Watchorn shot right and wide from another dead-ball chance.
The Duffry Rovers and Marshalstown-Castledockrell combination were the sharper side in the firsthalf, although two opportunist goals from Ciarán Murphy in the twelfth and 22nd minutes kept Ferns in touch up to half-time when they trailed by 1-7 to 2-0.
The visitors struggled to cope with the strong, direct running of centre-back Gavin Watchorn (0-3), wing-back Diarmuid Doyle and midfielder John Dunne (0-2), while the Hollow goal arrived in the 28th minute.
Doyle made a burst down the left and fed Cian Cowman whose first shot was parried by netminder Liam Murphy, but the wing-forward pulled on the rebound and rattled the net.
Ferns captain Ivan Meegan had taken a long time to shake off a knee injury sustained when he fell on the hard ground at the throwin, but he underlined his talent on the re-start.
The county goalkeeper, scorer of the point of the year thus far against Dublin, was at midfield in this game and arrowed over a free and a follow-up effort from play.
Jason Maguire claimed a mark from that second score and his long ball was finished to the net by Conor Jordan, and Meegan then sent Tom Lambert the wrong way from a 37th-minute penalty after a foul on James Lawlor.
That early burst of 2-2 without reply had pushed Ferns ahead on the unusual scoreline of 4-2 to 1-7, but the Hollow settled again after Cian Fitzhenry collected a quickly-taken free and goaled in the 42nd minute.
He was his side’s sole second-half scorer, adding five more points, four from frees, and it was nip and tuck as both teams really went for it in an entertaining last quarter.
James Lawlor, Meegan (’45) and Ciarán Murphy picked off Ferns points before Rory Scallan fed Meegan for what looked like the winner two minutes into added time.
The Gorey District side lost wing-back Shane Breen to a second yellow card before that late Cian Fitzhenry equaliser left both sides with unbeaten records going into the quarter-final stage.
Hollow Rovers: Tom Lambert; Jamie Roban (capt.), Mark Kehoe, Conor Hennessy; Alan Doyle, Gavin Watchorn (0-3), Diarmuid Doyle; Seamus Doyle, John Dunne (0-2); Michael Kinsella, Barry Doyle, Cian Cowman (1-0); Cian Fitzhenry (1-7, 0-6 frees), Colm Redmond, John Neville. Subs. - Liam Pender for Hennessy (40), Barry Redmond for Kinsella (58).
Ferns St. Aidan’s: Liam Murphy; Steve Warren, Paddy O’Hagan, Rory Scallan; Shane Breen, Niall Murphy, Patrick O’Toole; Eoin Murphy, Ivan Meegan (capt., 1-4, 1-0 pen., 0-1 free, 0-1 ’45); Jason Maguire, Chris Turner, Ciarán Murphy (2-1); Kevin Stafford, James Lawlor (0-1), Conor Jordan (1-0). Sub. - Shane Stafford for K. Stafford (36).
Referee: Martin Quigley (Rathnure).