Peter’s poised for big final bid
Murphy, a Wicklow native working as a teacher in St. Peter’s for the last five years, travelled north to check out the Ulster decider with fellow selector, and Wexford footballer, Brian Malone. He was impressed by what he saw.
‘They’re a very balanced team actually. I was quite impressed with how they move the ball. They can mix it. They can run with the ball, off the shoulder running. They play wide.
‘They have a big target man in full-forward and they can hit him with diagonal balls so, I mean, they’re a very capable outfit.
‘At the same time, look, we’ve a lot to be worrying about to get our own selves right, without getting too bogged down on what’s facing us. They’ll have done their research on us as well, seen results and may be wanting to clamp down on some of our scoring threats up front. We’d expect nothing else at this level.’
Planning for a St. Peter’s onslaught is one thing, preventing them from gaining control is another. A feaure of the Wexford school’s run to the final has been their strength-in-depth, and Murphy admitted it’s difficult for himself and Malone to pick a team.
‘It’s more so a tactical reason that a lad is left out than he’s not good enough, depending on what way we’re going to set up that day or what we think the opposition will do. Some lads are going to lose out.
‘When the game is in the melting pot those are the guys who will be winning the game for us. They’ve came on and they’ve produced it when we’ve needed them to and, by all accounts, Wednesday we’re going to need every one of those 20 lads.’ ST. PETER’S warmed up for Wednesday’s Masita All-Ireland semi-final with a powerful second-half performance to beat Patrician (Newbridge) to the South Leinster Senior football ‘A’ league title in Graguecullen on Monday of last week.
The Leinster champions were a little rusty in the first period and went in down by a point (0-5 to 0-4). However, they came out after the change-around with the bit between their teeth and dismantled their Kildare opponents.
Patrician were leading by 0-2 to nil in the ninth minute until corner-forwards Cathal Devereux and Ben Moore popped over a couple of quick points. Dylan Furlong put his school ahead for the first time at the start of the second quarter and was then blocked down by Mark Dempsey when a goal looked to be in the offing.
The first flashpoint in an edgy game came in the 24th minute when Shane Doyle was fortunate to receive only a black card after a neutral umpire gave his observations to referee Pat Moran following an incident with St. Peter’s full-back Ben Maddock.
Losing Doyle certainly weakened the Newbridge side, although they did add a trio of points to move one ahead at the interval. The lead lasted just seconds after the re-start and was obliterated inside four minutes.
Devereux flipped over a pair of points and Rory O’Connor also registered inside two minutes. Then, Brian Deeny fought hard to win possession close to the Patrician goal and fed the onrushing Furlong, with the Sarsfields forward rattling the net.
When Barry O’Connor kicked his second score, after a patient Peter’s build-up, the Wexford school had scored 1-4 in under four minutes and had built a sixpoint lead.
From that point on there was really only one winner. That was further emphasised when Cian Costigan received a straight red after a brawl he started, by kneeing an opponent in the back off the ball.
Mark McDermott added four second-half frees but it was all about how much St. Peter’s wanted to win by. David Gouldson kicked a classy point and Barry O’Connor added a brace. The St. Martin’s man was more than a little hard done by when his goal was ruled out for a square-ball in the 48th minute.
Leading by 1-11 to 0-8, St. Peter’s added minors from Furlong and Adam Cantwell. In the last minute of normal time, Dylan Lyne forced the ball to the net after David Sutton fumbled a Devereux effort that had dipped under the crossbar.
With Newbridge well beaten, Quinn Saunders fed Finn O’Driscoll flying through the centre. His initial shot was saved but the ball pinged up off Sutton, hit O’Driscoll in the midriff and rolled over the line to complete a comprehensive St. Peter’s win.