Solid start maintained
ST ANNE’S 1-7
OUR LADY’S ISLAND 3-9
OUR LADY’S ISLAND maintained their solid start to their All County Football League Division 5 campaign with victory over St Anne’s in Rathangan on Sunday afternoon.
After losing their opener to HWH-Bunclody, the Carne boys had a strong victory over Clongeen last time out.
Since then they’ve also won back-to-back championship games and they continued that stellar form into this contest.
Not that they had it all their own way. St Anne’s were within two points as late as the 54th minute but their visitors turned on the afterburners in the final few minutes to lump on some added gloss to the scoreboard.
It was a particularly tight opening quarter with both sides missing more than they were making. Davy Corish notched the only score of that spell, a tidy point from almost thirty metres out to give the Islanders a 0-1 to nil lead after fifteen minutes.
Corish’s midfield partner Fintan Mullins doubled the lead but St Anne’s were level by the 20th minute after overs from Franny Simpson and the influential Darragh Furlong. The key score of the half came in the 25th minute, an Island goal.
Again it was the midfield doing the damage from deep, this time it was Mullins who fed Dean Maloney and the powerful full-forward made no mistake with his finish. Yet after three consecutive St Anne’s points, including a nice score by Evan McKay, Our Lady’s Island needed an injury-time Robert Cloney minor to hold an interval lead (1-3 to 0-5).
It took five second half minutes for the scoreboard to be troubled again but when it came it was another critical major. This time Cian Meyler sent in a long ball, it broke to Mullins and he drilled a half volley high into the hosts rigging.
Furlong and Simpson helped halve the deficit by the end of the third quarter only for Adam Mullins and Meyler (2) to leave them in a 2-6 to 0-7 hole with eight minutes left. When Simpson was fouled close to goal, Paddy Miskella tucked away the resulting penalty to wipe out that trio of Island points.
St Anne’s wouldn’t score again. Dara Sinnott kicked a point before Eoin Wright fired home his sides third goal to seal victory, after great work by Meyler and Maloney. St Anne’s will be back in action on May 19th but that will be a league weekend off for Our Lady’s Island. ST ANNE’S: Noel Simpson; Vincent Carroll, Gavin O’Brien, Neil Roche; Paul McDonald, Seamus Mythen, Michael O’Brien; Paddy Miskella (1-0 pen), Rory Nunan; Gavin Howlett, Darragh Furlong (0-2), Gordon Simpson; Evan McKay (0-1), Fran Simpson (0-4, 2 frees), Daniel Kavanagh. Subs. - Nick Jones for G. Simpson (44).
OUR LADY’S ISLAND: Josh Burke; Damien Donovan, Noel Dempsey, Brian Moore; Damien Breslin, Quinn Saunders, Dillon Connick; Fintan Mullins (1-1), Davy Corish (0-1); Robert Cloney (0-1), Cian Meyler (0-2, 1 free), Dean Corish; Tommy Mullins, Dean Maloney (1-0), Eoin Wright (1-1). Subs. - Dara Sinnott (0-1) for Cloney (31), Adam Mullins (0-2) for T. Mullins (31), Jason Devereux for Moore (35), James O’Leary for Donovan (35).
REFEREE: Jack Stafford (Clongeen).