Facile win for Knockananna
Dunlavin no match for Reds
“LAST score wins,” shouted Dunlavin goalkeeper Darragh Figgis to referee Ciaran Fleming after his colleague Timothy Metcalfe had dropped over his side’s third score in this Junior ‘B’ football championship clash against Knockananna last Thursday night.
Metcalfe’s pointed free made it 6-13 to 0-03 in favour of Eugene O’Brien’s men, but unfortunately for Figgis and company, the home team went on to add a further 1-03 in the final moments of this one-sided affair, so a change to his “last score wins” rule would still have resulted in a defeat for the Dunlavin men.
Figgis had already called for Fleming to “blow it up” on numerous occasions during what was, ultimately, a facile victory for Knockananna and a potentially confidence damaging defeat for Dunlavin.
The visitors travelled with only 15 players having apparently lost a collection of bodies to the Intermediate team the previous week. To add to their woes, their impressive full-back Ivan Byrne picked up an injury in the first half and had to play out most of the game as an ineffective attacker in the full-forward line.
To make matters much worse for Dunlavin they met a Knockananna side intent on playing decent football with a subs bench littered with players hungry for a start so the home side never let up from start to finish.
But this was something of a facile victory for Knockananna and probably tells Eugene O’Brien and his backroom team very little about their charges.
Dunlavin kept it tight for a time and stood up well early on but once the first goal went in and Byrne picked up his injury, heads seemed to drop and Knockananna were gifted room they will not receive in the next round of this championship.
At times the home team played some really lovely football, open, expansive, with sweet diagonal balls criss-crossing the field and rapid bursts of passing taking them from deep to beyond midfield in seconds. They tackled adequately at times but Eugene O’Brien will be conscious that a tightening up of sorts needs to happen defensively for fear of exposure against stronger outfits.
Attack wise they are in a positive place. Johnny Wybrant’s hat-trick of goals and his overall play was impressive and his interchanging with centre-half forward Lorcan Tyrrell gives O’Brien a valuable option.
The returning Tyrrell looks full of passion and drive having spent the last few years in Canada and together with his brother Kevin, who prowls at corner-forward, they can cause damage to any defence.
Throw in Derek Kavanagh, who weighed in with 1-04, a free flowing Damien Byrne and the feverishly energetic Eddie Bracken and there are all the ingredients for a very decent attack.
But, as stated earlier, they can take nothing from this victory because far stiffer tests await them down the line.
The aforementioned Derek Kavanagh opened the scoring after seven minutes with a sweet score off his right. Dunlavin had started reasonably well and had two wides off the boot of midfielder Stephen Doyle.
Knockananna’s first goal came from the boot of Wybrant who charged through the Dunlavin heartland and lashed home past Figgis with 14 minutes on the clock.
Wybrant’s second came some 10 minutes later and Kevin Tyrrell had Knockananna’s third on 31 minutes, three minutes after Dunlavin’s first score which came from a converted free from the boot of their stand out player Brian Thackaberry. 3-08 to 0-01 at the break.
Derek Kavanagh kept the goal scoring exploits going when he fired home past Figgis after sweet hands from Tristan Maher and some chronically poor defending from Dunlavin after they let Lorcan Tyrrell waltz past two players.
Eddie Bracken, Wybrant with his third, and Declan O’Keeffe finished the goal scoring and the home team ran out 7-16 to 0-03 winners on a beautiful evening on the Carlow border.
The real star of the show, however, was Dunlavin goalkeeper Darragh Figgis. In the face of the onslaught he managed to maintain his sense of humour and he kept the umpires and the small band of supporters at the back of the goals immensely entertained with his quips and ‘spakes’ in the second half. Well done, sir!
Scorers – Knockananna: Lorcan Tyrrell 0-06 (2f); Derek Kavanagh 1-04; Johnny Wybrant 3-00; Kevin Tyrrell 1-03; Eddie Bracken 1-00; Declan O’Keeffe 1-00; Damien Byrne 0-03.
Dunlavin: Brian Thackaberry 0-01 (f); Paul Murphy 0-01; Timothy Metcalfe 0-01 (f).
Knockananna: John Farrell; Paddy O’Keeffe, Ronan Byrne, Keith Corrigan; Aaron O Neill, Garry Bradley, Declan Whelan; Padraig Lancaster, Tristan Maher; Eddie Bracken, Lorcan Tyrrell, Damien Byrne; Kevin Tyrrell, Johnny Wybrant, Derek Kavanagh. Subs: Alan Byrne for D Byrne; Declan O’Keeffe for D Kavanagh; Joe Byrne for J Wybrant.
Dunlavin: Darragh Figgis; Jordan Dunne, Ivan Byrne, Daniel Gethings; Jason Huntley, Louis Caplis, Brandon O’Rourke; Ciaran Thackaberry, Stephen Doyle; Scott Phelan, Brian Thackaberry, Timothy Metcalfe; Nick Byrne, Paul Murphy, Ronan Byrne.
Referee: Ciaran Fleming (Baltinglass)