Kilanerin make clever changes
Dogged Anne’s outpointed
KILANERIN ST. ANNE’S 0-14 0-12
SOME IN-GAME tactical adjustments paid dividends for Kilanerin as they continued their unbeaten run in their return to the Tom Doyle Supplies Senior football championship with a hard-earned 0-14 to 0-12 victory over a typically dogged St. Anne’s unit in Friday’s enjoyable Group A round three clash at St. Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy.
Despite a bright start to the game where they accounted for four answered points in the opening seven minutes, Kilanerin found themselves 0-9 to 0-6 in arrears at the interval as the Rathangan men started to grow in stature as the half wore on.
Needing something fresh to re-ignite that spark, the north county side made a couple of switches during the interval think-tank, with Páuric Hughes moving from wingback to centre-forward, midfielder Dean O’Toole resuming at the edge of the square, and Seán Forde entering the fray around the middle third.
And all three made huge contributions to their side’s winning run in the second-half, sharing six points between them, with Hughes also setting up the two other points scored by Mark and Tommy Boland.
The pick of the bunch was probably Forde’s free from 45 metres kicked from his hands at the end of the third quarter, while the same player may have been tempted to go for goal after an enterprising run but instead teed up Hughes to square up proceedings at 0-11 each after 52 minutes.
Substitute Tommy Boland then pointed after popping up in a pocket of space, while O’Toole stretched the lead to two a minute into injury time.
But Liam Rochford ran into an ocean of space in St. Anne’s next attack and, just when it looked like he might go all the way, he was hauled down for a free that Andy Kennedy tapped over.
They were reduced to 14 men during this frantic spell when Kenny Cloney picked up a second yellow card, and Hughes sealed a second win from three games for the Leinster Intermediate champions with the insurance point on 63 minutes.
They had started impressively enough with that aforementioned four-point burst, with Matty Forde twice kicking nice points from play after Conor Devitt had opened the scoring.
But that early intensity seemed to diminish as St. Anne’s found their groove with seven points in the last seven minutes of the half to open up that interval advantage.
They were given far too much room to work the ball on occasion too, with Jonathan Fogarty, Redmond Barry (twice), Mark Furlong and flying wing-back Michael O’Brien all finding the range with worthy points, only for a determined Kilanerin to eventually reel them in late on.
Kilanerin: Tom Hughes; Aidan Jones, Colm Kavanagh (capt.), Denis Jones; Páuric Hughes (0-2), Gavin O’Toole, Ben O’Connor; Dean O’Toole (0-3), Niall Breen; Mark Boland (0-1), Conor Devitt (0-1), Mark Gethings; Emmet O’Toole (0-1), Matty Forde (03, 1 free), Peter Hughes. Subs. - Seán Forde (0-2, 1 free) for Gethings (HT), Rhys Owley for E. O’Toole (HT), Tommy Boland (0-1) for Peter Hughes (49).
St. Anne’s: Paul Brennan; Páraic O’Keeffe, Tomás Cullen (capt), Kenny Cloney; Michael O’Brien (0-1), Seán Gaul (0-1), Diarmuid O’Keeffe; Kevin Whelan, Mikey Fogarty; Liam Rochford (0-2), Mark Furlong (0-1), Jess Codd; Redmond Barry (0-3, 1 free), Jonathan Fogarty (0-2), Dylan O’Brien. Subs. - Andy Kennedy (0-2 frees) for Barry (35), Shane Mythen for M. O’Brien (51).
Referee: Justin Heffernan (Blackwater).