Convincing win for Bardarrig sets up semi-final with Kilcoole

at Pearse’s Park, Arklow

went up for a high ball but landed awkwardly on his shoulder, leaving him with no choice but to exit the field of play. Tom Doyle replaced him with Andrew P Kavanagh moving into Quinn’s position in midfield.

Aughrim were making a lot of errors early on, giving the ball away easily on a couple of occasions. They struggled to settle into the occasion. They also posted three early poor wides which proved costly in the end. But against the run of play in the 13th minute, Rory O’Brien knocked down into the square by Conor Lambert to hit the back of the net. Robert Lambert then knocked over a free off the deck to lead by two. Lambert was Aughrim’s strongest performer of the half, dominating his territory.

Despite their lead, Aughrim weren’t very easy on the eye, as Michael Cullen capitalized on another mistake to point. It wasn’t just Aughrim who were struggling, with Barndarrig failing to dominate the aerial duals that they would have had they still had their captain on the pitch.

Aughrim began to command the last ten minutes of the half, with points from goalscorer O’Brien and Conor Phelan extending their lead out to three.

They were utilising the gaps in the Barndarrig defence and creating good chances, while their opponents registered three consecutive wides. There were a lot of wides from both in the first half, five from Barndarrig and nine from Aughrim.

Robert Lambert added a free again off the floor to leave the scores at 1-5 to 0-4 in favour of Aughrim going into the break. Barndarrig needed a surge of energy and scores in the second half if they were to get anything in this game and that’s exactly what they got, particularly from their clinical full forward Michael Murphy.

He began the scoring in the second half with a point off his left boot. Murphy then added another before John Andrew Kinsella scored a fantastic looping point to reduce the deficit to one.

Aughrim just failed to come out of the blocks at all in the second period with lots of gaps being formed in their defence.

Barndarrig were winning every breaking ball, and getting the luck too.

Murphy equalised for Barndarrig and once that went over, it looked like only one result was on the cards.

He added another three to his tally to completely demolish Aughrim’s half-time lead. Aughrim continued to lose the ball time and time again, looking rather lackadaisical.

Nothing was going Aughrim’s way to the frustration of their travelling support. They did manage to create a goal chance with five minutes to go, when two substitutes Shane McGuckian and Bobby Newsome combined well before Newsome’s effort was tame and easy for goalkeeper Jamie Roe.

Aughrim rarely committed enough forward to mount a good scoring opportunity.

In the end it was a five-point victory for Barndarrig at a sunny Pearse’s Park, and now only Kilcoole stand in the way between them and a championship final.

As for Aughrim, it’s the end of the road for them in what was a decent championship where they surprisingly defeated Kilcoole earlier in the group stages, but Sunday just wasn’t their day.

Final Score: Barndarrig 0-13, Aughrim 1-5

Barndarrig – Michael Murphy 0-8 (4f); Michael Cullen

Scorers:

0-2; Philip Kinsella 0-1; Martin Cullen 0-1; John Andrew Kinsella 0-1.

Aughrim – Rory O Brien 1-1; Robert Lambert 0-2 (2f); Conor Phelan 0-1; Patrick Phelan 0-1.

Jamie Roe; James Quinn, James Cullen, Kevin Cullen; Patrick Redmond, Jacques McCall, Shane Whelan; Bernard Quinn, Michael Cullen; Paul Ryan, Andrew P Kavanagh, Philip Kinsella; John Andrew Kinsella, Michael Murphy, Martin Cullen. Subs: Tom Doyle for B Quinn (7 mins, inj); Stephen Collins for J Quinn (HT); Cathal Keegan for Redmond (56 mins)

Brian Lynch; Ian Clancy, Eoin Forsyth, Daniel Owens; Conor Phelan, Robert Lambert, Alan Cotton; Michael Brennan, Patrick Phelan; Patrick Kavanagh, Pierce Lawlor, Adam Rochford; Willie Kavanagh, Rory O Brien, Conor Lambert. Subs: Shane McGuckian for Rochford (43 mins); Richard Keegan for P Kavanagh (49 mins); Bobby Newsome for Clancy (49 mins).

John O Brien

Barndarrig: Aughrim: Referee: