Men in red in total control
Monageer see off St. Pat’s
M’GEER-B’VOGUE ST. PATRICK’S 4-15 0-11 THE INAUGURAL Centenary Cup made the relatively short journey from Camolin to the Monageer-Boolavogue clubhouse on Saturday as the finalists put in a useful 60 minutes ahead of the championship resumption this weekend.
Both sides needed to come through tough semi-finals back in June to make the decider. Monageer-Boolavogue overcame a 13-point half-time deficit to see off Carnew Emmets while hosts St. Patrick’s needed extra-time to defeat a brave Tara Rocks outfit.
However, it was the second tier club which came out on top in this encounter, showing the type of quality that took them to the Intermediate ‘A’ title last season. Barring the odd couple of hefty challenges, it was a game played in the spirit of the occasion.
It was 0-1 each when Paul McDonald took on a shot that would automatically lead to a rollicking in the championship against Geraldine O’Hanrahans next week. Tight to the endline and way out on the right, the St. Pat’s forward somehow split the posts from the most acute of angles.
They led by 0-3 to 0-2 until Peter Mernagh, not the tallest man around the square, plucked Shane Kehoe’s ball out of the sky and flashed it powerfully into the roof of Mark Furlong’s net.
Starting his day the way he continued, in superb form, Stephen Murphy flicked a long ball audaciously to the net to make it 2-2 to 0-4 at the end of the opening quarter.
Monageer-Boolavogue continued to set the pace but the hosts hung around and broke just four points in arrears after James Cousins scored just before the interval (2-7 to 0-9). That was despite the scoreboard going array in the first-half - a rookie error to leave the home side, not the visitors, short a point.
St. Patrick’s needed all those first-half points as they managed just two John Doyle frees in the second period. Matthew Dunne latched onto a Pádraig Flynn pass and raced away to beat Furlong with a powerful finish for Monageer-Boolavogue’s third major.
While that shot flew towards the goalmouth at super-speed, the fourth goal barely trickled in. Substitute Diarmuid Fenlon launched a long ball into the goalmouth between ‘keeper, defender and forward, and it beat them all and nestled just inside the right post.
A rake of substitutes broke up the game in the final quarter but Monageer-Boolavogue won’t mind.
They got an excellent run-out, and confidence-boosting win, ahead of their crunch clash with Blackwater on Saturday evening.
As well as being the club’s way of celebrating the 1916 centenary, the tournament also helped to raise funds for St. Patrick’s to install an astro-turf area in the grounds.
Any further donations to help with construction would, no doubt, be gratefully accepted by the club.
Monageer-Boolavogue: Morgan Gahan; Mick Sweeney, Chris Daly, Liam Gahan; Graham O’Reilly, Dean Fenlon, Shane Gahan; Matthew Dunne (1-1), Niall O’Reilly (0-3); Pádraig Flynn (0-4, 2 frees), Damien Fenlon, Brian O’Loughlin; Stephen Murphy (1-4), Shane Kehoe, Peter Mernagh (1-1). Subs. - Mark Gahan for Kehoe (33), Diarmuid Fenlon (1-1, 0-1 free) for Flynn (41), Brian Dwyer (0-1) for O’Loughlin (46), Cathal Walsh for Damien Fenlon (49), Seán McCabe for Sweeney (51), Ray O’Brien for Mernagh (53), Robbie Donnelly for G. O’Reilly (57).
St. Patrick’s: Mark Furlong; James Cousins (0-1), Michael O’Brien, Peter Roche; Ian Maguire, Dermot O’Leary, Hughie Doyle; John Doyle (0-4, 3 frees), Daryl Murphy; Shane Finn, Richie Flood (0-1), Tommy Dunne (0-1); Paul McDonald (0-1), Andrew Doyle (0-1), Tomás Morris (0-2). Subs. - Ashley Tully for McDonald (38), Tynan Flynn for Maguire (41), Michael Carroll for A. Doyle (43), John Cousins for Finn (47), Matthew Crawte for Morris (56), also Ger Gahan, Enda Murphy, Michael Hamilton, Stuart Quinn, David Graham.
Referee: more). James Owens (Aska-