Carnew do enough Éire Óg battle bravely but come up short in the end

at Pearse’s Park, Arklow to be outdone when he too landed a point from a sideline cut a minute later to open the Eire Og account.

Padraig Doran added a point for Carnew after nine minutes before Enda Donohue landed his first point from a free a couple of minutes later, having missed a couple early on.

Indeed Donohue seemed to have difficulty gauging the cross field breeze in Pearse’s Park, as he went on to miss with a few frees later on as well.

When Wayne Kinsella caught a long drive into the Eire Og goalmouth, turned sharply and netted his second goal off his left hand on 14 minutes, things were looking ominous for the Greystones men.

They seemed to spur themselves to life, however, and James Cranley with a pointed free and the tall Andrew Walsh with another point from play left the two goals in the difference after 18 minutes.

A Jack Doyle point for Carnew was responded to by James Cranley from a free. From the puck out Liam Kennedy scored his side’s last point of the half.

Eire Og finished the half the stronger scoring twice in the final five minutes of the half when Anto Byrne landed a mighty long range free to be followed by another point from play by Christy Flynn to leave the half-time score line at 2-5 to 0-6 in favour of Carnew.

Considering where they had been at the mid point in the half, Eire Og had recovered well and still had a fighting chance as the second half began.

They maintained the momentum of the last few minutes of the opening half by getting the first three scores of the second period.

Midfielder Gavin Parslow landed the first point immediately on the restart, James Cranley scored a fine point from out on the sideline in the sixth minute and with Christy Flynn knocking over another on 10 minutes the gap was now down to two points.

Unfortunately for the Greystones men, this was as good as it got. Carnew got motoring again and dominated the remainder of this half.

Enda Donohue pointed a 65, Don Hyland scored another from play and when Oisin Furlong, now operating in an outfield role, landed his point, the lead was three and the Emmets could begin to breathe a little easier.

Following this little spurt, the tempo of the game dropped back again and the only scores for the last quarter came from Enda Donohue frees. He pointed on 16, 20 and 22 minutes and just at the end goaled with a 20-metre free to give a slightly flattering look to the score line. Final score 3-11 to 0-9. Carnew seemed content to have got through this contest without having to extend themselves to any great extent.

For their part, Eire Og seemed pleased to have recovered from a poor start and to have narrowed the gap to two points at one stage early in the second half

Scorers – Carnew: Enda Donohue 1-6 (5f, 1 65, 1 line ball), Wayne Kinsella 2-0, Padraig Doran 0-1, Jack Doyle 0-1, Liam Kennedy 0-1, Oisin Furlong 0-1 and Don Hyland 0-1.

Eire Og: James Cranley 0-3 (2f), Christy Flynn 0-3 (1 line ball), Anto Byrne 0-1 (f), Andrew Walsh 0-1, Gavin Parslow 0-1.

Carnew Emmets: Martin Murphy: Willie Collins, Martin O’Brien, Oisin Furlong; Drew Brennan, Andy Hughes, Graham Keogh; Conal McCrea, Don Hyland; Dan Nolan, Liam Kennedy, Jack Doyle; Padraig Doran, Wayne Kinsella, Enda Donoghue. Subs: Robert Lambert for Graham Keogh, Dean Grandy for Don Hyland.

Eire Og: Martin Joyce; James Kelly, Daniel O’Connor, Peter Keane; Billy Cuddity, Anto Byrne, Jack Tanner; Ben Nolan, Gavin Parslow; Christy Flynn, Leon Browne, Shane Nolan; Michael Walsh, James Cranley, Andrew Walsh. Subs: John Deaney for Daniel O’Connor, Patrick O’Sullivan for Peter Keane, Peter Keane for Ben Nolan, Declan Byrne for Michael Walsh.

Referee: Ciaran Manley.