Ballyfoilmore in dominant victory over Sneem / Derrynane

St Michaels/Foilmore 3-16 Sneem/Derrynane 0-8

ST Michaels/ Foilmore made the long trek to Sneem last Saturday in the hope of coming away with a victory that would give them confidence going forward and their fans were not disappointed.

Sneem / Derrynane opened the scoring after two minutes with a neatly taken point by Ian Galvin. St Michaels / Foilmore responded quickly with four unanswered points by Barry O’Connell, Bernard Kelly and two frees from Darren O’Sullivan.

Ronan Hussey pointed from a free for Sneem / Derrynane, but then St Michaels / Foilmore struck for the first of three goals. A neat passing movement involving Darren O’Sullivan and Bernard Kelly saw Kerry Under 21 star Matthew O’Sullivan finish with aplomb to the net.

Ronan Hussey responded with another pointed free, but Matthew O’Sullivan through his sheer size was causing all sorts of problems for the Sneem / Derrynane backs at this stage and he duly tacked on another point while setting up scores for Damien Kelly and Darren O’Sullivan.

Just before half-time St Michaels / Foilmore struck for their second goal and it was that scoring machine again, Darren O’Sullivan. St Michaels / Foilmore went in at half time leading 2-8 to 0-4.

Sneem / Derrynane needed to get on top early in the second half, but the combination of Kerry player Mark Griffin, Cian O’Connor and Padraig King around the middle of the field denied them any meaningful possession .

St Michaels / Foilmore tallied 1-7 without reply, the goal coming from Barry Connell before Sneem / Derrynane staged a late rally with four points. St Michaels / Foilmore ran out eventual winners 3-16 to 0-8.

A feature of the game was the outstanding full-back play of South Kerry Under 21 Dara Scanlon who really put the shackles on Ronan Hussey and the overall dominance of Matthew Sullivan until he was black carded.

Sneem / Derrynane will be disappointed with that performance, but their main objective for the season was promotion from Division 5, which they duly achieved the previous Sunday after going agonisingly close the previous two years.

St Michaels / Foilmore manager Connie O’Connor on the other hand will be pleased that his game plan yielded a big score and they will be brimming with confidence going into the semi final. ST MICHAELS/FOILMORE: J O’Shea, E Curran, D Scanlon, K Griffin, A Smith, S O’Connor, S O’Sullivan, C O’Connor 0-1, P King 0-1, B Kelly 0-2, D Kelly 0-2, M Griffin, D O’Sullivan 1-5 (0-4f), B O’Connell 1-0, M O’Sullivan 1-2