County SFC: Victory for Duhallow over Seandún
Duhallow 4-15 Seandún 1-11
ONCE Duhallow opened up the Seandún defence on three occasions during the opening quarter to bag a trio of goals, there was an inevitability about the outcome to this County Senior Football Championship Round 2A at a sun-drenched Mallow on Saturday.
For the majority of the hour, Duhallow dominated the proceedings and always looked far sharper and more effective both in defence and attack. Credit Seandun, though conceding major scores, they battled hard and fair to put up a decent score yet found themselves under the cosh against a committed Duhallow.
A breeze assisted Duhallow signalled their intentions and hit the front thanks to a Jerry O’Connor point. However Seandún, boosted by a first round victory and bragging rights won against fellow city side St. Nicks dug their heels in and a series of enterprising raids yielded points to Eoin Buckley, Herry Kelleher and Paul Cronin.
The action remained fast and furious, Donncha O’Connor split the posts before Aidan Walsh placed Michael Vaughan for a well taken goal. Now Duhallow underlined their sense of purpose
in defence where John McLoughlin and Bart Daly presided with calmness and authority; at midfield, the returned Walsh commandeered the region while in attack, Duhallow held a variety of routes to the target as Donncha O’Connor, Seamus Hickey and Jerry O’Connor posed tricky questions.
And the Barony boys grabbed a second major strike, Hickey chipping former county ‘keeper Paddy O’Shea for a second goal.
The sides traded points to Cronin and Jerry O’Connor only for the Duhallow attack to move with speed and fluency to register another goal, McLoughlin performed much of the spadework for fellow Kanturk club man Mark Healy blast home for a clear 3-3 to 0-4 advantage by the quarter of hour mark.
In fairness, Seandún rose to the challenge, Cronin chipped in with a point, that score preceeded a goal on 23 minutes, Buckley, the initiator for substitute P J Murphy to blast home.
However Duhallow finished the opening half in the ascendant, driving forward in relentless waves saw the O’Connors, Anthony and Donncha, along with Hickley on target to add points for a 3-7 to 1-5 advantage at the short whistle.
Seandún wasted no time on adding to their tally on the restart with the lurking Eoin Buckley obliging to point. Maybe a possible comeback, it was question time for Duhallow and not unexpectedly, their response was well co-ordinated, confirmed on wing back Paul Walsh prompting space to allow Jerry O’Connor show a clever pair of heels to net.
Indeed Duhallow’s ball retention, support play and finishing bore a positive return with Hickey and Vaughan pointing. Still Seandún invented themselves as dogged battlers through the encouraging efforts of Shane Buckley, Killian Brosnan, John Paul Murphy and Eoghan Buckley.
Points to St. Michaels Buckley and Roy Downey offered faint hopes of a recovery to trail 4-10 to 1-8 at the three quarter mark. Indeed, the city hopefuls plugged away, further points to Cronin and Kelleher sandwiched a Duhallow flag for substitute Matthew Dilworth.
Still the sense persisted that Duhallow weren’t going to be dislodged and a spell of enterprising football came about from a new phase in productive fare that gained well struck points for O’Connor, Walsh, Vaughan and Hickey.
Seandún never gave up, Buckley delivered a pair of late points to provide some encouragement ahead of a Round 3 engagement. Onwards for Duhallow, ensuring a place in Round 4 at least where no doubt, the intensity will rise a level or two.
DUHALLOW: