Macroom power past Vincents

Macroom 0-16 St Vincents 1-5

AN improved second half performance spurred on Macroom to finish strongly from St Vincents in Round 3 to the County Premier Intermediate Football Championship at Coachford on Saturday evening.

Recovering from an uncertain start, Macroom enjoyed a positive finish to the opening spell and smoothly rose the tempo on stepping up a gear to outsmart the city side 0-10 to 0-1 on the change of ends. There was no questioning St. Vincents commitment to the cause yet after a promising opening half, they were forced to yield to the attractive verve in Macroom’s game.

Relieved selector Colman Corrigan failed to get carried away by the performance and indicated Macroom won’t waste time on getting down to prepare for the next challenge in a renewed clash against Newmarket next week.

“We’ve work to undertake, Newmarket gave us a trimming in Round 2A and deservedly so. And if we perform the same way as we did here in the opening half, a similar result may well be on the cards yet on the positive side, today’s game will surely stand to us,” he said.

“In terms of performance, we were poor early on, a case of St. Vincents closing us down, we seemed to operate at 100 miles per hour, not thinking, passing the ball left and right, not hitting the target.

“Crucially, David Goold came into the game at midfield, we made a few changes and the intensity levels increased reflected on outscoring Vincents 0-10 to 0-1 in the second half,” said Corrigan.

From the dour early exchanges, with no quarter asked or given, the two sides were evenly matched, level on three occasions. Vincents availed of the solid work of Anthony O’Callaghan, Darren O’Regan, Anthony Buckley and J P Murphy, their cause received a massive boost in the 21st minute, Jerry Kelleher touched home a speculative delivery from Murphy.

Still Macroom remained in the hunt, back to back points from Alan Quinn and David Horgan narrowed the arrears to the minimum 1-4 to 0-6 at the break. On the resumption, St. Vincents flattered to deceive, David Lockyer added to the tally for what was their lone score for the second half.

Having taken a time to break down Vincents resilience, Macroom reacted positively on putting their shoulder to wheel in many of the key areas. Through the productivity of midfielder Goold, well supported by Tony Dineen along with the assertive play of Kevin O’Dwyer, Seán Kiely and David Cotter in defence, Macroom’s game prospered.

Points from Goold and Conor O’Sullivan squared up matters as attacking defenders Kiely and Cotter popped over points. St. Vincents seldom made inroads whereas Macroom capitalised on possession for Kiely, Cotter, Goold and hard working substitute Mark Corrigan split the uprights.

Ominous clouds had gathered for St. Vincents, just a soliditary point, their lot in the second half allowed Macroom pull away for a comfortable win.

MACROOM: D Kiely; K O’Dwyer, R Buckley, M Cahill; M Cronin, S Kiely 0-2, D Cotter 0-2; D Goold 0-5 (2f, 1 ‘45’), T Dineen; D Creedon, C O’Sullivan 0-2f, D Horgan 0-2; E O’Gorman 0-1, A Quinn 0-1, P Lucey Subs: M Corrigan 0-1 for O’Gorman (37), O Murphy for Lucey (43), P O’Farrell for O’Dwyer (50, inj), G Angland for Quinn (58)

ST VINCENTS: P O’Shea; A O’Callaghan, P Cullinane, D Fenton; K Sorenson, D O’Regan, R Fielding; P O’Sullivan, S Duggan 0-1; J O’Mahony, A Buckley 0-1, D Lockyer 0-1; J Kelleher 1-2 (0-1f, 0-1’45), J P Murphy, G McCarthy Subs: P Herne for McCarthy (29, inj), A Good for O’Regan (49, inj), A O’Donoughue for Duggan

REFEREE: J O’Leary (Mallow)