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Sharp forwards help Carnew cruise past An Tochar
CARNEW EMMETS 2-13 AN TOCHAR 0-07
CARNEW comfortably saw off the challenge of An Tochar in this D’Arcy Sand Intermediate football championship group game in Joule Park, Aughrim on Friday evening.
They packed too much punch up front for their opponents with the likes of Cillian Gilligan, Brendan McCrea and John Kavanagh causing havoc and they were solid at the back conceding just the seven scores.
Carnew’s goal through Gilligan just before half time was probably the pivotal moment in the match as it pushed them five points clear and in truth from then on in An Tochar never really looked like clawing back the deficit.
Carnew stated the game on the front foot in the opening minutes but their shooting went astray as An Tochar were let off the hook. Within 60 seconds Gilligan was sent in behind but his shot at goal was just the wrong side of the post for him as a major goal chance went a begging. John Kavanagh did put Carnew in front with a free but the pink boots of Conor Davis and then Eamonn Wolohan kicked good points from play as Roundwood found themselves leading after being mostly out played in the opening 10 minutes.
John Kavanagh had half a sight a goal but his soccer type effort was always curling to the left and for the next 15 minutes neither side troubled the score keepers. The scoring drought finally ended as Cillian Gilligan converted a close in free after Brendan McCrea won himself a dubious enough looking free.
The score seemed to kick Carnew into action as Gilligan quickly followed it up with another free he’d won himself before Seánie Kinsella hit a mighty score from 35 yards to double Carnew’s lead after 28 minutes.
In conjunction with some poor shooting from Carnew, An Tochar had managed to stifle many of the attacks and done well for the opening 25 minutes but as Carnew seemed to get on top around the middle the quality of the balls in improved and the pacey four man forward line really started to turn the screw on An Tochar.
A goal seemed inevitable and it arrived on 30 minutes as Niall Osborne tore up the right wing from his corner back position and played a deft hand pass over the top to Gilligan who smashed the ball to the roof of the net, from the right side 14 yards out, to increase the gap to two scores.
Enda Donoghue and McCrea compounded the damage of the goal with two further points from play as Carnew took a 7 point lead into the break with them, 1-6 to 0-2.
Roundwood had obviously come to contain Carnew and hit them on the break as Conor Davis was their only inside forward. But the full forward cut a lonely figure inside as Roundwood simply didn’t get enough men forward and their cause wasn’t helped by some wayward shooting as well.
Eamonn Wolohan had a good game for the losers and he opened the second half scoring a lovely point with the outside of his right before Davis closed the gap further after turning Carnew full back Paul Nolan.
Carnew eased further ahead with points from John Kavanagh and Timmy Collins and had already established a 6 point lead by the time the second goal arrived.
Jack Doyle set up the attack as he made a great 40 yard run up the left wing when it looked like there was little on, before the ball was worked to John Kavanagh who switched it across to the unmarked Seánie Kinesella. He made no mistake from inside the large box to all but end An Tochar’s hopes of a fightback.
Carnew kicked the next five scores as An Tochar looked a beaten team with Gilligan landing the pick of them after a lovely flick on from John Kavanagh.
Davis and Marcas Keenan did ensure An Tochar had the final say with late points to add some gloss to the score line but they will want to move on and forget this match in a hurry as in all truth Carnew were well worth their 12 point win.
No doubt much tougher assignments lie ahead but after two matches Carnew have 4 points and a score difference of +20 so they have to be happy with where they are. There’s no doubt though that they have a solid team and players who can be a real handful so they are certainly a force to be reckoned with in Intermediate this year.
Scorers - Carnew: Cillian Gilligan 1-3 (0-2 frees), John Kavanagh 0-4 (0-4 frees), Seánie Kinsella 1-1, Brendan McCrea 0-2, Enda Donoghue 0-1, Justin House 0-1, Timmy Collins 0-1.
An Tochar: Conor Davis 0-4 (0-2 frees), Eamonn Wolohan 0-2, Marcas Keenan 0-1.
Carnew: Cormac Doyle; Niall Osborne, Paul Nolan, Adrian Myers; Jack Doyle, William Collins, Nick Skelton; Padraig Doran, Justin House; Enda Donoghue, Brendan McCrea, Drew Brennan; Cillian Gilligan, John Kavanagh, Seán Kinsella. Subs: Timmy Collins for Drew Brennan (blood sub, 35 mins), Drew Brennan for Timmy Collins (38 mins), Timmy Collins for Seán Kinsella (44 mins), Liam Kennedy for Brendan McCrea (53 mins), Mark Collins for Niall Osborne (55 mins).
An Tochar: Peter O’Toole; Stephen Connor, Gavin Kenny, Conor Short; Peter Byrne, Brendan Swords, Noel Power; Jamie Salley, Liam Halligan; Liam Gaffney, Stefan Collier, Eamonn Wolohan; Seán Mockler, Conor Davis, Marcas Keenan. Subs: David Molloy for Gavin Kenny (Blood sub, 22 mins) Gavin Kenny for David Molloy (25 mins), David Molloy for Stephen Connor (45 mins), Luke Power for Seán Mockler (55 mins).
Referee: Kieron Kenny