Early Kelly strike sets Tone for Seans

SEAN McDermotts revived their hopes of reaching the Junior Championship quarter-finals when they enjoyed a comfortable victory over Wolfe Tones at Stabannon on Thursday evening.

Following their surprise defeat to John Mitchels the previous week, the McDermotts got back on track and despite the best efforts of a gallant Wolfe Tones they came out with a straightforward and deserved victory.

In the end the Mountrush side were just that bit sharper, both physically and mentally, than their opponents, while they were more assured in possession and had a greater cutting edge in attack.

Led by the excellent Patrick Fanning, the Tones played some nice football throughout the game and refused to throw in the towel, however, they were unable to match the strength of the Seans and too often lost possession cheaply in the tackle.

While they did enjoy a good share of possession, they didn’t have the scoring power in attack and will rue a series of missed chances over the hour.

The game took a while to get going and it wasn’t until the eighth minute that the Seans snatched the lead through a fine Tony Kelly effort with the outside of his book, while Emmet Kelly added a second straight after the kick-out.

Kelly added his second on 11 minutes before Niall Smith opened the Tones account with a well-taken score from distance soon after.

Any confidence his side might have gained from that score was soon wiped out as just before the quarter hour as Kevin McGahon set up Kelly for the opening goal of the game.

As the Tones missed chances to keep in touch the Seans stretched the lead through Danny Reilly before Darren Weldon cut in to add a second for the Tones.

Just before the break David O’Neill fired over to make it 1-5 to 0-2 for the McDermotts.

The Drogheda side threatened a comeback at the start of the second half when points from Gideon Lugoye and Barry Kelly cut the gap to four points.

The Tones probably needed a goal at that stage to give themselves any real Tony Kelly side-steps Wolfe Tones goalkeeper Chris Eustace to score his side’s opening goal. Picture Paul Connor

hope, but in the face of some strong defending from the Seans, the chances of raising the green flag were slim.

Two quick Lorcan Myles points followed by a Peter Osbourne score had the Seans back in command by the end of the third quarter before the game was put beyond any doubt when sub Kevin Carroll fisted a second goal from an Emmet Duffy centre to make it 2-8 to 0-4.

The Tones kept battling to the end and were rewarded with points from Gideon Lugoye and Jordan Duffy, but in the end

the McDermotts ran out comfortable winners by 11 points.

The performance will give the Mountrush side a much needed confidence boost ahead of their final Group D game which will see them take on the Westerns knowing that victory is needed to keep alive their hopes of making it through to the quarter-finals.

SEAN MCDERMOTTS: Mark McEneaney; Danny Reilly 0-1, Ciaran McMahon, Kevin McGahon; Danny Cummins, Lee Ross, Sean McMahon 0-1; Peter Osbourne 0-1, Patrick Osbourne; David O’Neill 0-1,

Emmet Duffy 0-2, Ian Corbally; Lorcan Myles 0-2, Tony Kelly 1-3, Kevin McMahon. Subs: Kevin Carroll 1-0 for I Corbally, BJ Matthews for D O’Neill, David Balfe for Kevin McGahon, Brendan McGahon for K McMahon

WOLFE TONES: Chris Eustace; Adam Gartland, Patrick Fanning, Alan Fanning; Sam Kelly, Graham Fanning, Eoghan O’Shea; Niall Smith 0-1, Barry Kelly 0-1; Kevin Collier, Marc Lugoye, Jamie McCormack; Gideon Lugoye 0-2, Darren Weldon 0-1, Jordan Duffy 0-1. Subs: Andy Faulkner for J McCormack, Chris Cudden for G Fanning, Gavin Kierans for D Weldon.

REFEREE: Kevin Brady. AFTER surviving a minor scare from Stabannon Parnells in the opening round, Glen Emmets cruised into the quarter-finals with a routine 29-point victory over Cuchulainn Gaels on Thursday night.

It was one way traffic from start to finish, but just what Emmets can take from such a facile victory remains to be seen, as they await the draw for the last eight.

It’s unlikely they’ll have things as easy as this again this summer as they rattled off 1-3 in the opening five minutes to dash any hopes of a Gaels surprise.

James Butler and Sean Byrne shared that opening salvo between them, with the latter netting the first of two goals on the night in the fifth minute.

Cian McDonald kicked one of the scores of the game to get Cuchulainn Gaels off the mark, but they didn’t manage another for 15 minutes and Emmets showed their ruthless streak by hitting straight back with a Damien Grimes goal.

That second goal sent the floodgates crashing open and the Tullyallen men added seven points without reply to lead by 2-11 to 0-1.

Gaels stopped the rot with points from Brian Elmore and Jody Keenan, but a Butler goal at the opposite end saw Emmets retire with an emphatic 3-14 to 0-3 advantage.

They let up ever so slightly in the second period, but only after Byrne had fired home his second and his team’s fourth major of the night.

Cuchulainn Gaels managed to better their first-half tally by one with Cian and Eoin McDonald, Elmore and Keenan all on target, but again they went through long spells without a score as Emmets kept the scoreboard operator busy at the other end.

After slipping up in the group stages to emerge as runners-up last term, it’s mission number one accomplished for Kevin Barry’s men, who must wait to see what the new open draw throws up after next weekend’s final round of games.

Gaels can still join them in the last eight, but the odds will again be staked against the Omeath men as they take on a Stabannon Parenlls side that ran Emmets to four points in round one.

GLEN EMMETS: Conor Kelly; Joe Farrelly, Keith Boylan, Niall Hackett; Evan English, Stephen Healy, Ronan Carr; Ronan Grufferty 0-4, Mark Garvey 0-1; David Bracken 0-3, Derrick Johnston 0-2; James Butler 1-5, Sean Byrne 2-3, Damien Grimes 1-2. Subs: A Monoman for Healy, D Whyte for Hackett, J Farnan 0-3 for Garvey, B Hilliard for Bracken, S Owens 0-1 for Byrne, C Byrne for Grufferty.

CUCHLAINN GAELS: Brendan O’Hagan; Peter Morgan, JP Elmore, Brendan McKeown; Jordan Loye, John Morgan, Kieren McAteer; Francis O’Hagan, Rammie Phillips; Cian McDonald 0-2 (1f), John O’Hagan, Eoin McDonald 0-1f; Michael McCabe, Brian Elmore 0-2, Jody Keenan 0-2. Subs: Paul O’Hanlon, Callum Fearon, Chris Connolly, Seamus McCabe, Peter McCabe.