Mary’s crash out of running
Game marred by O’Hara injury
ST. MARY’S (Rosslare) crashed out of the Ashdown Park/Amber Springs Hotels Intermediate football championship, losing to 14-man HWH-Bunclody in Group B in Bellefield on Saturday.
The Wexford District side came up four points short of matching Ferns - whom they drew with back in June - on score difference, after both sides lost their final round encounters by six points.
While a defeat by the minimum would have secured St. Mary’s passage to the quarter-finals, they were pretty much always playing catch-up in this contest. They led just once, after David Murphy’s early free, and otherwise it was a case of hanging with their in-form opponents for as long as possible.
HWH-Bunclody advance to the last eight with four wins from their five matches. They won’t be an easy team to dispatch, and if they are to be beaten that side is going to have to do a better job of stopping Peter Atkinson than Rosslare managed.
The Bunclody forward was in sublime form; he scored 1-6 but it wasn’t just that total that was impressive, it was his all-round game. Eoin Kelly cancelled out the early point, making it 0-1 each, and was involved again in feeding Atkinson for a coolly-taken opening goal.
Murphy added another point but it quickly got worse for his club. After a superb brace of minors from Atkinson, he made the space and fed Keith O’Hara for a calmly-slotted second goal (2-3 to 0-2).
A super score from Jason Ellard and a third point from Murphy were countered by another Atkinson double as Bunclody took a comfortable 2-5 to 0-4 lead in at the changearound. It was soon padded further by scores from Kelly and Atkinson after the re-start.
David Murphy and Tiarnan Rossiter would be the only scorers of a half playing with the wind for Rosslare. They both registered to pull their side within seven before Kevin Dunne was sent-off for abusive language towards match official Eric Molloy.
A flashpoint that saw Bryan O’Hara suffering a nasty jaw injury stopped the game for several minutes. The incident happened behind play, meaning anybody that was following the ball couldn’t have seen it.
No action was taken which didn’t satisfy several completely out of line Bunclody personnel who harangued the referee at full-time.
Trailing by 2-9 to 0-7, Tiarnan Rossiter caught David Murphy’s pass in stride, drove at goal and sent a stunning shot to the top corner of Patrick Kavanagh’s net. However, Conor Kinsella netted in added-time after a fantastic team move to ensure Rosslare never got closer to a qualified Bunclody than five points.
HWH-Bunclody: Patrick Kavanagh; Enda Slevin, John Atkinson, Martin O’Connor; Páuric Sinnott (0-1), James Moorhead, John Dunne (0-1 free); Bryan O’Hara, Conor Kinsella (capt., 1-0); Eoin Kelly (0-2), Keith O’Hara (1-0), Seán Kenny; Colm Farrell, Peter Atkinson (1-6), Kevin Dunne. Subs. - Billy Kelly for J. Atkinson, inj. (10), Josh Martin for B. O’Hara, inj. (45), Barry Kehoe for Kenny (60+3).
St. Mary’s (Rosslare): Steve Cogley; Shea Boggan, Emmet Byrne, Eamonn Power; Seán Finan, Gearóid Byrne, Larry Morrissey; Rob Butler, Andrew Murphy; Paul Kinsella, Conor Cafferkey, Ultan Quirke; Tiarnan Rossiter (1-4, 0-2 frees), David Murphy (capt., 0-5, 2 frees), Jason Ellard (0-1). Sub. - Peter Carr for Ellard (59).
Referee: Eric Molloy (St. James’).