O’Shea leads Vols charge
SOME RAGGED football produced an entertaining hour of sport in the Joyces Expert Intermediate ‘A’ championship, with the Volunteers taking the Group B spoils at the expense of the Shamrocks as they finished the stronger in Killurin on Saturday.
With a fresh breeze at their backs, the Wexford District outfit also made the brighter start as Eoin O’Shea profited from a weak kick-out to poach the opening goal.
He and Jack O’Leary shared the free-taking to help the eventual winners go 1-4 to 0-3 ahead with just ten minutes played.
However, a coolly-dispatched point from Seán Wildes and a wonderful finish to the net past the out-stretched right hand of goalie John Cody by Reece Dunne had the Rocks level by the end of the first quarter.
The Vols might have had a second goal before the break but Kevin Somers did well to tip Keith Kearney’s shot over his own bar, and they had to be content with holding a 1-8 to 1-6 advantage at the turnaround.
They thought they had found the net once more on 40 minutes but Kearney was ruled to have invaded Somers’ square too soon and the score was disallowed.
Instead it was Cody who was obliged to fish the ball out of his goal at the other end of the field after superb build-up play from James Carty and Shane Larkin teed Colin Sheehan up for a Shamrocks major.
After being in arrears for more than 20 minutes, the Enniscorthy men found themselves a point to the good, then two points to the good after Sheehan popped over a free.
But that proved to be the high point of their evening as their rivals piled on the pressure in search of their second win of the campaign - pressure which paid off on 52 minutes.
Eoin O’Shea’s solo run towards goal was brought to a rude conclusion with a rugby tackle, leaving referee Jack Stafford an easy decision to award the penalty, duly tucked away with confidence by Keith Kearney.
Niall Thorpe might have had a levelling point but his kick drifted wide, and instead O’Shea tacked on some insurance for the St. John’s men, having the last word with a sweetly-launched free from 40 metres range.
Volunteers: John Cody; Anthony Walsh, Paudge Brennan, Brian Delaney; Jason Kearns, Mick Murphy, Mikey Lawlor (0-1); Stephen Burke, Keith Furlong; Aaron McGuire (0-1), Cian Brennan, Ciarán Hillery; Eoin O’Shea (1-4, 0-3 frees); Jack O’Leary (0-3 frees), Keith Kearney (1-2, 1-0 pen.). Subs. - Eoin McCarthy for Lawlor (30), Luke Dowdall for Hillery (48).
Shamrocks: Kevin Somers; Shane Larkin, Alan Freeman, Anthony Wallace; Cory Breen, Brandon O’Connor (0-1), John Kavanagh; James Carty (0-1), Seán Wildes (0-1); Barry Dobbs (0-1), Ronan Gahan, Jack Moorehouse (0-1); Cormac Kehoe, Colin Sheehan (1-3, 0-1 free, 0-1 ‘45), Reece Dunne (0-1). Subs. - Niall Thorpe for Moorehouse, black card (21), Robert Moorehouse for Dunne (46).
Referee: Jack Stafford (Clongeen).