Delight for Duffry as big win secures final place
DUFFRY ROVERS CRAANFORD 3-9 1-4 DUFFRY ROVERS proved too strong for Craanford in the Joyces Expert Intermediate ‘A’ football championship semi-final at St. Patrick’s Park on Saturday.
The Coolree crew never trailed, and to be fair never looked like being upset in a thoroughly clinical performance.
It’s not often that the entire starting half-back line scores for a side in football, and that says something about the confidence with which Rovers are playing.
Right across the team they flung the ball around. Not every move was perfect and it wasn’t a barrage of scores, but the most impressive thing about the victors is that they kept true to their gameplan and executed it more than well enough to take the victory.
Tim Bowler signalled their intentions in the sixth minute when breaking through on goal and forcing Bob Flynn into a tidy save. The warnings weren’t heeded as Craig Casey and Stephen Watchorn played a clinical one-two a minute later before the former hooked his shot to the corner of the net.
Two minutes later Craanford were level for what would prove to be the final time. Joe Berney and Michael Lyons combined through the centre, fed James Smyth overlapping on the right, and he calmly shot low to the corner of Bobby Larkin’s net.
The Gorey District side added just a Des Kavanagh point in what was left in the half. Meanwhile, at the other end Tim Bowler was making light work of dead-balls. His side’s second goal came in the 16th minute from a fantastic strike by Eamonn Doyle.
The Duffry led by 2-5 to 1-1 at the interval and were rarely troubled thereafter. A flashpoint that saw four players involved in a scuffle ended with Rovers’ Aidan Byrne and Craanford’s Joe Berney receiving straight red cards in the 35th minute.
It didn’t really impact the flow of the game. Craanford pulled within five when Shane Kavanagh kicked a fine point from the right wing in the 49th minute, but rather than signal the beginning of a final quarter comeback it proved to be their final score.
If three Duffry points in a row didn’t put the game to bed, Matthew Flynn-O’Connor’s goal in the 59th minute certainly did.
Rovers must now wait to discover their final opponents after Cloughbawn and Crossabeg-Ballymurn drew their semi.
Duffry Rovers: Bobby Larkin; Conor Jordan, Feargal Kenny, James Codd; Craig Casey (1-0), Paul Nolan (0-1), Thomas Dunne (0-1); Eamonn Doyle (1-0), Donie O’Connor; Aidan Byrne, Johnny Flynn-O’Connor (0-1 free), Gavin Watchorn; Tim Bowler (0-4, 3 frees, 1 ‘45), Stephen Watchorn (0-2), Robert Frayne. Subs. - Matthew Flynn-O’Connor (1-0) for G. Watchorn (44), Alan O’Neill for D. O’Connor (51), John McCarthy for Bowler (60).
Craanford: Bob Flynn; Pat Kenny, William Conroy, Tony Kavanagh; Joe Berney, James Byrne, Michael O’Loughlin; Des Kavanagh (0-1), Niall Berney (0-1); James Smyth (10), Pat Murray (0-1), Michael Lyons; John Fleming, Jamesie Nolan, Shane Kavanagh (0-1). Subs. - Ollie Doran for Lyons (37), Matthew Nolan for J. Nolan (37), Ger Lyons for Byrne (40), James O’Loughlin for Fleming (48).
Referee: Billy Dodd (Sarsfields).