Starlights secure second position
STARLIGHTS EDGED past Blackwater in their Group B game in the Enniscorthy Farm Systems Junior football championship in Monamolin on Saturday.
The win guaranteed the Enniscorthy side a second place finish while ending Blackwater’s campaign. They finished bottom of the table, but fortunately for them there is no relegation final in the grade this year as only eleven teams took part.
In a game which lacked finishing quality, the Starlights will be grateful to full-forward Lee Murphy whose six minors would have been enough to beat the Blackwater side alone.
The sides traded minors all the way through the first-half and while both managed to get their foot in front, the lead was never extended past one point.
Murphy registered all of his team’s four first-half scores while Blackwater shared the burden a little bit better. Dean Whelan registered twice with Joe Neville and Darragh Doyle chipping in with a point each.
With the score delicately poised at 0-4 apiece at the interval, Blackwater actually had the advantage of the breeze at their backs coming into an important second-half.
Scoring just once more, it’s fair to say that they drastically under-used this advantage. Ben Edwards and Murphy pointed in the opening two minutes after the re-start, and Ronan Kirwan was taken out of goal to score the third minor in the 42nd minute.
After 28 minutes without a score, Neville knocked over a free which only briefly reduced the deficit before Murphy added his final point from play.
Blackwater had a few efforts at goal without ever being really threatening to net, as Doyle and Neville both saw shots batted away as time ran out on their season.
Starlights will advance to the quarter-finals after only being pipped to top spot by the unbeaten Oylegate-Glenbrien, and will face Castletown.
Starlights: Ronan Kirwan (0-1); Ryan Hadley, Daniel O’Brien, Chris Doyle; Wayne Breen, Ed Tobin, Ben Edwards (0-1); Brian Ronan, John Ryan (capt.); Dale Galway, John Daly, Kevin Ryan; Pa O’Rourke, Lee Murphy (0-6, 3 frees), Mark Redmond. Subs. - Timmy Dwyer for O’Rourke (40), Conor Ronan for J. Ryan (40), Declan Courtney for K. Ryan (47), William Doyle for Redmond (53), William Dunne for Daly (55).
Blackwater: Ger Lynch; Ennae Carroll, Anthony Roche, Kevin O’Brien; Darragh Doyle (0-1), Paul O’Leary, Darren Byrne; Denis Carroll, Dean Wright; Michael Lillis (capt.), Richard Blake, Kerill Sutton; Dylan Dixon, Joe Neville (0-2 frees), Dean Whelan (0-2). Subs. - Kevin Murphy for Sutton (40), Lar Leacy for Whelan (43).
Referee: Paddy Campbell (Shelmaliers).