ÉIRE ÓG GREYSTONES

Our senior footballers were very much the underdogs going into their game against Hollywood in the opening round of the Renault Senior Championship in Joule Park on Saturday.

Hollywood came to Aughrim with an impressive CV, they were Division 1 league winners while Éire Óg had not had a stand-out presence in Division 1A. Further our cause was not helped by the absence of a number of key personnel which included county player Stephen ‘Chester’ Kelly.

The early stages of the match rendered substance to this assessment as Hollywood had run up a score of 1-02 before Éire Óg got on the scoreboard with a point. A little score for Éire Óg but a score which had a huge effect on the trend of the game.

Up to that all the indications were of a very bad day at the office for our lads. As it turned out the score steadied the Clocha Liatha ship and the threatened deluge did not transpire. In fact the game thereafter settled into a more or less tit for tat contest with the score difference hovering around the five-point mark until the final whistle.

In the end, Éire Óg lost by four points which shows that the opposition gained no ground after the initial 1-2 surge.

There is no denying that the men from the west were worthy winners but our lads, once they had overcome the initial shock of Hollywood’s scoring spree, showed that the difference between the teams was exaggerated by the final score.

The disparity in league status between the teams obviously worked to Clocha Liatha’s disadvantage.

Their approach lacked the sharpness which would have been gained by playing against the better teams in Division 1 while Hollywood did have this experience and this was reflected in their play; they were livelier in their engagement, quicker in their reaction and they moved the ball with more purpose.

Their superior qualities in these areas gave Hollywood a distinct advantage with respect to the gaining of possession of the breaking ball in the middle third where their return was well above 50 per cent.

The team’s next championship outing is