Rosslare see off St. Fintan’s
St. Fintan’s regained the initiative with good points from Conor Sinnott and Donal Shanley, although the Rosslare outfit ended the half on a high with Robert Butler slotting over after a driving run to leave them trailing by one (1-5 to 0-7) at the break.
Lee Devereux was certainly in the mood in the second-half, scoring four of the first five points, each one as admirable as the next to put his side two ahead.
Paul Kinsella stretched the advantage to three, before Donal Shanley steadied the St. Fintan’s ship by converting a free.
However, St. Mary’s put the foot on the pedal again and scores from Tiarnan Rossiter and David Murphy (free) gave them a 0-14 to 1-7 advantage with ten minutes remaining.
St. Fintan’s chipped into the lead with a point from county player Shanley and an injury time effort from Robert Coakley to set up a tense finale.
The nerves were jangling in the St. Mary’s defence in the fourth minute of time added on when Coakley slid the ball across the face of the goal, but it was deflected out for a ’45 which came to nothing. ADAMSTOWN SLIPPED out of Senior ranks at the end of last season after a rewarding 20-year sojourn, but their desire to make an immediate return was clear as they overcame a fellow District club with happy memories of the top flight in this Amber Springs/ Ashdown Park Hotels Intermediate football championship Group A opener in O’Kennedy Park, New Ross, on Saturday.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Clongeen’s greatest campaign when they were crowned the best team in the county.
And their line-out bore stark witness to the unrelenting passage of time, with Stephen Curtis, Barry Foxe and Stephen Bennett the only survivors on board from the heroes of 2007.
Adamstown mentors will be happier with their first-half display rather than the second, with most of the hard work done before the break as they surged into a 2-8 to 1-3 lead.
Lively left-footer Conor Hickey kicked their opening point before they goaled for the first time in the fifth minute, and it was all down to the quick thinking of wing-forward Shane White.
He didn’t hang about after winning a free, playing it quickly to the overlapping James Breen who in turn picked out Ian Bradley for a calm finish from close range.
The game was in danger of passing Clongeen by when they trailed by 1-4 to 0-2 after 13 minutes, but they earned a lifeline when Stephen Bennett handpassed to county Senior Paul Curtis whose shot was partially