Avondale come out on top after thriller with Nicks
AVONDALE 3-17 ST NICHOLAS 3-13 AVONDALE came out on top in this cracker played in Rathdrum last Wednesday night but they earned their win against a determined Nicks team who never stopped trying right to the last whistle.
St Nicks started well and settled best, they had two goals on the board in the first seven minutes with Avondale’s only reply in that period a Conor Byrne free after Ryan Bolton was fouled. Paddy Kelly and Stephen Doyle got the goals for the west boys who then suffered an injury blow in the 10th minute when impressive corner forward Shane Eager suffered a broken wrist after an awkward fall.
Eager had started the game impressively and had a part to play in both goals so his loss was huge for the Nicks team. The game was held up for over 30 minutes and when it restarted Avondale were a different team kicking some great points from James Murphy, Tyrone Byrne, Ross Ward and Craig Byrne giving them a 0-11 to 2-04 lead at the break.
Avondale got a dream start to the second half in the shape of two early goals and looked like they had finally shaken off the stubborn Nicks challenge.
The west lads had other ideas, Sean Brannigan and Shane Figgis took aver almost complete control around the middle of the park showing some excellent catching ability and anything they didn’t hold was seized on by Shane O’Rourke who had a fine second half and St Nicks started a fight back. Goalkeeper Tom McGuirk was finding the target from long range frees and kicked six points in total over the hour in an impressive display of dead ball kicking punishing any Avondale discretion out the field.
Paddy Kelly, Henry Healy, Marty Caplis and Mark O’Sullivan, who had moved to full-forward, were starting to make life hard for the Avondale backs running at them and centre forward Brian Nolan was also to the fore as they kicked five points on the trot to leave the score 2-12 to 2-09 to the home team as we entered the final quarter.
Conor Byrne was now back helping his defence to stem the tide with centre men Luke Cullen and Conor Sheehan.
The McGraynor brothers Oisin and Donal also spending a lot of time near their own goal and rarely got the chance to get forward. A break finally came led by the hard working Jack Manley and Ryan Bolton which seen Conor Byrne on the end of the move and he made the most of an advantage being played to finish to the net and he finished the game with a tally of 1-04 in a fine showing.
This was the score that finally broke the St Nicks lads who to their credit did kick some more scores themselves and full-back Mark Reid got forward late on looking for a goal only to slip at a vital time and Conor Penn and Stephen Lee were able to clear the danger away for a 45.
Avondale who were a little understrength probably just deserved their win but you would imagine that both these will feature in the closing stages of the championship. St Nicks have plenty of fine players in their squad and will hope that Shane Eager will have a speedy recovery from his injury and we all wish him well.
Avondale: Kieran Penn; Conor Penn, Luke Cullen, Steven Lee; Tyrone Byrne, Conor Sheehan, Callum Busher; James Murphy and Oisin McGraynor; Jack Manley, Donal McGraynor, Ryan Bolton; Ross Ward, Conor Byrne, Craig Byrne.
St Nicholas: Tom McGuirk; Eoin McGonagle, Mark Reid, Shane O’Rourke, MJ Moran, Mark O’Sullivan, Patrick Healy; Sean Brannigan and Shane Figgis; Henry Healy; Brian Nolan, Marty Caplis; Stephen Doyle, Paddy Kelly, Shane Eager. Subs: Oisin Sinnott for Eager (inj), Cameron Phelan for O’Sullivan (inj). Referee: Kieron Kenny