Superb economy in front of goal as Stars shine bright

ENNISCORTHY STARLIGHTS created their own piece of history on Sunday when they upset the odds and beat favourites St. Martin’s in emphatic style in the Tom Doyle Supplies Senior football final.

It was a fitting way to mark the centenary of their great club and in many ways this performance paid tribute to the numerous people past and present who have made the club a mainstay of the community in Enniscorthy.

Visit Bellefield any day or evening and it is a hive of activity and shows you it is lots more than just a G.A.A. club.

On Sunday Starlights were fast out of the blocks and played some great football to lead by 0-7 to 0-2 after 19 minutes. We were all waiting for St. Martin’s to come to life but they were being stifled by the organised defence and midfield dominance of their opponents.

A mistake from a short kick-out and a superb poacher’s goal from Ciarán Lyng did ignite a challenge for a short period, but Starlights weathered a brief storm and really from that point on never looked like losing.

Their forwards were proving a handful with their pace and finishing; in fact, it was the 31st minute before they registered their first wide. Such economy in front of goal is unheard of in club football and they proceeded to only have three wides for the whole game.

I certainly can’t remember a winning team having so few misses in a game. In contrast, St. Martin’s had 15 wides, but this was mainly down to the pressure exerted by the Starlights defensive set-up. The Starlights closed down the danger men quickly and forced players not renowned for scoring to shoot from bad positions.

Last week I got the match prediction wrong but I did say that I expected the young guns to bring something special to the game; thankfully I got something right. When I looked at the programme after the game and saw that Ryan Mahon, Kevin Foley, Dillon Redmond, Nick Doyle, Liam Ryan and Darragh Pepper are all 21 or less I was even more impressed with their performances, as all of them were brilliant.

Kevin Foley is a lot older at 22 but he was equally brilliant. In fact, every Starlights player was at the top of their game and only an injury to Richie Farrell forced the selectors into a change. No player had to be replaced because he was underperforming which speaks volumes for the team performance.

Any of the aforementioned was a candidate for man of the match but Darragh Pepper’s workrate, movement and finishing deserved the accolade. Any 21-year-old who scores five points from play to help win a county final can’t be overlooked for such an award.

St. Martin’s will be disappointed with their performance and especially the number of wides they accumulated, but on the day they were out-thought and out-played by a talented team. They kept trying to get that elusive goal to get them back into the game, and Jake Firman was their outstanding performer.

Talking to some of the Starlights players afterwards, they could not speak highly enough of their coach, Joe Hagan. He instilled belief, character, discipline and dedication into a squad that didn’t always pull in the one direction.

He got them to buy in to his ways and as a result used their undoubted talent to turn a relegation-threatened team in to county champions in less than twelve months; an amazing achievement by any standards.

What made the victory even sweeter for the club is the fact that Purt Doyle was also a selector. Purt has coached the majority of the players on the panel from the time they started playing with the club as six-year-olds.

Over the last 20 years I have seen him with Starlights teams at every under-age grade, bringing them to matches, picking the teams, coaching the children, a physio, father figure, friend to them all and great clubman. What a feeling it must have been for him on Sunday evening.