Good start wasn’t half the battle for Duffry

ST. MARY’S (ROSSLARE) DUFFRY ROVERS 2-15 1-5

WHOEVER FIRST suggested that a good start is half the battle should have been at Oylegate on Saturday where the Junior ‘B’ footballers of Duffry Rovers made a nonsense of the old adage.

The men from the Blackstairs comprehensively bossed the opening stages of their Enniscorthy Farm Systems championship quarter-final against St. Mary’s (Rosslare), only to stall and fade as they stumbled to a 13-point defeat..

All seemed well with their world when Alan O’Neill and Micheál Doyle were terrorising the opposition defence, clocking up four unanswered points at the outset.

When Doyle set up O’Neill for the fourth of the four, there was nothing in the breezy Oylegate air to suggest that they would require 42 more minutes of football played before adding a fifth.

But that was how it turned out as Rosslare, so well bottled up by Rovers in the opening quarter, popped their cork to play some champagne stuff.

After weathering the Duffry storm, they clawed their way back into contention through a Rees Broaders free which did not arrive until there were 15 minutes on the clock.

From then on it seemed that every move they attempted turned to gold while their opponents flatlined and failed to rediscover their initial mojo.

The eventual winners offered a glimpse of what they were capable of with a Kevin Power point, stabbed over the bar to crown an excellent move originating deep in their own territory.

When big man Conor Cafferkey burst from midfield to collect an Aaron Roche handpass and find the net behind Ben Nugent, Rosslare were suddenly ahead and motoring.

Goalkeeper Nugent found himself painfully in the firing line, performing heroics to limit the damage as he tipped shots from Philip Lambert and Fintan Wickham at the expense of a hand injury.

Behind by 1-7 to 0-4 at the interval, the Duffry threatened briefly to re-ignite on the resumption but Darragh Hayes blocked Micheál Doyle’s goalbound effort and Rosslare resumed their pummelling.

Granted, Doyle did eventually find the net on 54 minutes, too late to suggest a comeback was on the cards and prompting a rapid response in kind from Aaron Kehoe. Rosslare’s day, the Duffry’s demise.

St. Mary’s (Rosslare): Darragh Hayes; Jake O’Connor, Ned Power, Paul Fortune; Philip Lambert (0-4), Conal Grant, Seán Stewart; Richard Bent, Conor Cafferkey (1-1); Derek Brohan, Shane Sinnott (0-1), Kevin Power (0-1); Andy Cummins, Rees Broaders (0-4, 3 frees), Aaron Kehoe (1-0). Subs. - Fintan Wickham (0-1) for Brohan (25), Mick McInerney for Broaders (48), Ben Hayes (0-1) for Power (53), Andy O’Connor for Fortune (56), Alan Hyland for Kehoe (59).

Duffry Rovers: Ben Nugent; Seamus Breen, James Nolan, Conor English; Jamie Roban, Joe Coleman, James Howlin; Seamus Doyle, Colm Redmond; Michael Doyle, Kyle Kavanagh, Michael Coleman; Micheál Doyle (1-1), Alan O’Neill (0-4), Conor Coleman. Subs. - Barry O’Neill for Kavanagh (35), Jim O’Neill for Howlin (39), Daryl Jordan for O’Neill (46), Eddie Wilson for C. Coleman (51).

Referee: Philip Murphy (Faythe Harriers).