Relief for Horeswood
HORESWOOD HELD on to take the spoils and move to the top of Group A of the Amber Springs/ Ashdown Park Hotels Intermediate football championship in Tagoat on Saturday.
In a truly entertaining game, the eventual winners’ performance in the opening ten minutes paved the way for an impressive victory over a Crossabeg-Ballymurn team full of attacking quality.
With the wind, they motored into an eight-point lead. Seán Nolan looked a handful in the early stages and finished into the roof of the net after his early minor had got the scoreboard moving.
Moments later, after P.J. Banville had lifted a second Horeswood white flag, David Larkin drilled a shot through goalkeeper Ben Turner’s legs to make the score 2-2 to nil after just seven minutes.
Crossabeg-Ballymurn did gain some composure after that goal but they did little to reduce the deficit in the remainder of the first-half.
An Andy Butler double and one from Cormac O’Rourke got them going before Darren Shannon and Nolan pulled the sides back apart again.
They kept trading scores until the break. One more from Nolan and a pair of Banville frees were answered with another Butler score and a minor by Seamus Carroll, and the gap at half-time remained at eight (2-7 to 0-5).
Crossabeg-Ballymurn started the second-half like Horeswood had the first.
They scored the opening five points, three by Butler and one each for O’Rourke and Pádraig Foley, as they quickly cut into the deficit.
Horeswood found occasional routes into the Crossabeg-Ballymurn red zone.
They scored just four points in the entire half, and those efforts from Jamie Myler, Banville and a Shannon brace proved to be just enough when Damien Donovan blew the full-time whistle.
A goal probably would have turned the tide enough for Crossabeg-Ballymurn to steal a win, but it never looked like coming. The point-hungry losers fired over several more and had left just one between the sides going into injury time.
Butler was still at the heart of the scoring, but minors from Conor Devereux and Foley helped too.
Crossabeg-Ballymurn were granted one chance in injury time to hijack a point. O’Rourke kicked a 50-50 shot just short and with that Donovan ended the game, maintaining Horeswood’s one hundred per cent start.
Horeswood: Conor Swaine; Kevin Parker, David O’Shea, Eamonn O’Sullivan; Eddie Shiely, Darren Shannon (0-3), David Larkin (1-0); Shane O’Hanlon; P.J. Banville (capt., 0-4 frees); Eric Banville, Eoin Murphy, Barry Hearn; Michael O’Hanlon, Jamie Myler (0-1), Seán Nolan (1-3).
Crossabeg-Ballymurn: Ben Turner; Michael Eviston, Oisín Foley (capt.), Conor Barlow; Conor Devereux (0-1), Ronan Devereux, Seamus Carroll (02); Paddy Devereux, Pádraig Foley (0-2); Cormac O’Rourke (0-2), Martin Redmond, Cathal Devereux; Andy Butler (0-9, 5 frees), Robert Byrne, Bill Eviston. Subs. - Sam Kelly for M. Eviston (8), Davy Kehoe for Barlow (50), Eoin McDonald for Redmond (58).
Referee: Damien Donovan (Volunteers).