No stopping St. Martin’s

ST. MARTIN’S turned on the style to comfortably dispose of a disappointing Kilanerin outfit in this Premier Under-20 football championship semi-final at Piercestown on Sunday afternoon last.

St. Martin’s may have arrived into this game as favourites but many still expected Kilanerin after an impressive run of games to serious test their opponents, but once the Martin’s struck for two fortunate first half goals they were always in control, as a shot-shy north Wexford side continually struggled for scores mainly through over elaborate forward play.

Kilanerin had opened impressively with early points through Mick Molloy and Sean Forde, both frees, but they were unable to turn their early possession into further scores, mainly through poor finishing and over elaborate play up front.

Any questions that St. Martin’s may struggle were quickly answered when in their first real attack on twelve minutes Jack Devereux availed of an error by keeper Gavin Finn to find the net, giving his side a lea they were never subsequently to lose.

Three minutes later it was another error in defence that set up the homeside for their second goal with Zac Firman availing of the opportunity to plant the ball in the net giving his side a 2-0 to 0-2 lead.

With Kilanerin unable to ad to their early scores it was St. Martin’s who finished the half strongly adding unanswered points through Luke Kavanagh along with three David Cantwell frees to lead 2-4 to 0-2 at the interval.

St. Martin’s by this stage were playing with great confidence and they killed any hopes of a Kilanerin revival when Kyle Firman got on the end of a breaking ball to first time the ball high into the roof of the net, the goal coming within two minutes of the restart, but the homeside were now comfortable leading 3-4 to 0-2.

The standard of football deteriorated after this and one had to wait until the forty-third minute for the games next score a Jack Devereux goal. With Kilanerin continuing to struggle there was never the semblance of a comeback as the Martin’s dominance was to continue although the visitors finished with late points from Sean Forde, three frees, and Paudie Hughes, they only succeeded in giving the final scoreline a better complexion.

St. Martin’s now go on to play Guserane O’Rahilly’s in the final where they can expect a much stiffer challenge.

ST. MARTIN’S: Brendan Dodd; Michael Codd, Eoin O’Leary, Joe Barrett; Sam Audsley, Philip Dempsey, Ben Stafford; Adam Cantwell, Ben Maddock; Conor Kelly, Jack Devereux (2-0), Luke Kavanagh (0-1); Zac firman (1-0), David Cantwell (0-4 frees), Kyle Firman (1-0). Subs: David Codd for Dempsey (B. C), Conor Devereux for Kelly; Jordan Hayes for David Cantwell; Conor Stafford for Kavanagh (B.C.).

KILANERIN: Gavin Finn; Ben Morris, Cathal O’Reilly, Paddy Darcy; Jason Bolger, Stephen Neville, Ben O’Connor; Paudie Hughes (0-1), Sean Bardon; Robert Murphy, Sean Forde (0-4 frees), Conor Hughes; Joe Curtis, Mick Molloy (0-1 free), Patrick O’Connor. Sub: Matthew Healy for O’Reilly (inj.).

REFEREE: Barry Redmond (Clonard).