DANNY SEALS WIN
Staunton strike kills off dogged Roscommon challenge
WICKLOW ROSCOMMON 2-16 0-16
SEAMUS MURPHY’S Wicklow hurlers secured a semi-final berth in this year’s Christy Ring Cup thanks to their hard-fought 2-16 to 0-16 victory over Roscommon in Athleague last Saturday afternoon.
A tight pitch and a physically impressive Roscommon side meant that this collision was always going to be tricky for the Wicklow hurlers to navigate and with Joe Keane directing things from the back and Danny Glynn proving useful from placed balls it shouldn’t be too much of a shock that only two goals separated the sides at the death.
Bear in mind too that Wicklow lost key attacker Andy O’Brien to a second yellow early in the second half but Roscommon failed to make the advantage count on the scoreboard thanks to a hard-working defence and Danny Staunton’s superbly taken goal after 24 minutes of the second half served to knock the stuffing out of the home side’s effort.
It was Roscommon who started the brighter in front of a small crowd in sunny Athleague. Micheál Byrne, named at full-back but playing at centre half back rifled over the opening score while Danny Glynn grabbed the first of his 10 points to put Roscommon two up after three minutes.
Early in this game PJ Nolan’s hurling ability was evident and the Kilrush-Askamore man swept over a beautiful point to get Wicklow off the mark and Mikey Lee walloped over another to level the game.
The home side were full of beans at this stage and a point from a sideline from Shane Curley, and two points from play from Glynn fired Roscommon into a 0-5 to 0-2 lead. Andy O’Brien grabbed one back from a 65 as we passed the 10-minute mark in what was a tight and tough encounter all over the field. O’Brien had won the 65 after he gathered ahead of the burly Jason Kilkenny and watched as his shot for goal was blocked out for the 65.
Roscommon were deploying a sweeper in the form of Kerrill Hardiman and in what was a reflection of the confidence of Seamus Murphy and his management team they sent Peter Keane with him. As a result, the Roscommon defence appeared quite congested while there looked to be plenty of space in front of the hard-working Warren Kavanagh and Martin O’Brien.
Points from Ronan Keddy (play) and Andy O’Brien left the sides level again but a Glynn free returned the home side to the lead with 14 on the clock.
It was the classic case of nip and tuck for the remainder of the first half with Wicklow points coming from PJ Nolan, after a poor puck-out from Joe Keane, George O’Brien, and Eamonn Kearns leaving Wicklow within one of the home side after 33 minutes.
Seamus Murphy’s men can probably count themselves lucky that Roscommon hadn’t put the finishing touches to several goal chances they had. Naos Connaughton, lining out a full-forward on Warren Kavanagh had kicked for goal only to see his effort saved by Bob Fitzgerald, and Danny Glynn had got in behind the Wicklow full-back line, but he blazed over for a point after Danny Staunton had clearly been fouled moments earlier.
And then Wicklow got a massive boost. A Peter Keane delivery found the hand of Andy O’Brien who turned his man superbly but as the St Pat’s man entered the Roscommon square he was taken out of it by Jason Kilkenny and Pat Nolan and after initially awarding a free referee Nathan Wall from Cork spread the arms wide and signaled a penalty.
O’Brien stepped up and walloped home. Glynn replied with a fine point for the home side and we headed for half-time with Wicklow leading by 1-8 to 0-10.
Wicklow were being held relatively well by Roscommon in the early stages of the second half. Seamus Murphy sent in Padraig Doyle for Anto Byrne after six minutes of the restart but there was little daylight between the sides by the 22nd minute when George O’Brien slipped around his man and charged down on the Roscommon goal before slipping a lovely pass out to Danny Staunton who let the ball hop before catching and rifling home to the back of the net to make it 2-13 to 0-15.
Points from Andy O’Brien (two, one free), a superb Mikey Lee effort while under severe pressure, and two from Christy Moorehouse (one free) had left Wicklow ahead by two prior to Staunton’s ripper of a goal.
A lofted Ronan Keddy effort and two fine points from Mikey Lee (one free) closed out the Wicklow scoring for the day and left them victorious by 2-16 to 0-16.
Not the best performance from this Wicklow team but they entered a difficult arena against a dogged and determined outfit and emerged with the win and, ultimately, that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
They’ll need to improve ahead of the visit of the Lilywhites. The potential for that improvement is there in spades.
- Wicklow: Andy O’Brien 1-4 (1-0 pen, 2 ‘65s, 1f), Mikey Lee 0-4 (1f), Danny Staunton 1-0, PJ Nolan, Ronan Keddy, Christy Moorehouse (1f) 0-2 each, Eamonn Kearns, George O’Brien 0-1 each. Roscommon: Danny Glynn 0-10 (5f, 1 ‘65), Michael Byrne, Shane Curley (sideline), Eamonn Flanagan, Kerrill Hardiman, Warren Boyle, Naos Connaughton 0-1 each.
Bob Fitzgerald; Peter Keane, Warren Kavanagh, Martin O’Brien; Garry Byrne, John Henderson, Eamonn Kearns; Ronan Keddy, Danny Staunton; PJ Nolan, Anto Byrne, Christy Moorehouse; George O’Brien, Andy O’Brien, Mikey Lee. Subs: Padraig Doyle for A Byrne (42), Eoin McCormack for C Moorehouse (68), Billy Cuddihy for G Byrne (70), Jamie Byrne for G O’Brien (70+2)
Joe Keane; Alan Moore, Jason Kilkenny, Pat Nolan; Hugh Rooney, Michéal Byrne, Eamonn Flanagan; Darragh Heavey, Shane Curley; Danny Glynn, Cillian Egan, Cormac Kelly; Cathal Kenny, Naos Connaughton, Kerrill Hardiman. Subs: Robbie Fallon for Egan (30), Warren Boyle for Kenny (h-t), Kenny for Moore (56, blood), John Murray for Heavey (70+1)
Nathan Wall (Cork)
Scorers Wicklow: Roscommon: Referee: