Billy strikes late to secure victory for Éire Óg men
ÉIRE ÓG 1-14
BRAY EMMETS 1-09
BILLY NORMAN’S goal in the 60th minute put this game to bed and earned Éire Óg a valuable two league points.
Moments before that Niall Gaffney had reduced the deficit to two points and left Éire Óg ever so slightly worried. However Anto Byrne, known more for his hurling exploits, won the resultant kick out and some neat interplay left Norman free at the edge of the square to palm the ball into the Bray Emmets net.
The game was a tale of two full-forwards, Norman for Éire Óg and Marc Lennon for Bray Emmets. Norman had an obvious height advantage over Conor O’Doherty and he was involved, once indirectly, in 1-04 of his side’s total while Lennon took Peter Keane, who wore 13 but played at full-back, to the cleaners. Chester Kelly’s forced absence through a reported knee injury hurt Éire Óg badly.
It was also a tale of a poor enough match. Without Darren Hayden and the aerial bombardment towards Norman, Éire Óg would have found scores difficult to get. Outside of Niall Gaffney and Lennon, Bray Emmets were limited.
Éire Óg took the safe option of passing laterally far too often while Bray Emmets got into attacking positions to take a shot on goal only for their players to shrink responsibility and lose the chance by passing to a teammate.
The opening quarter started quickly, with scores coming a plenty and the game’s pattern unfolding itself. It took Éire Óg the small matter of twenty seconds to get the first score, Darren Hayden making the most of Pearse Kelly winning the throw in.
Niall McGraynor and Hayden traded frees before Dominic O’Reilly made it three points to one. He kicked a long ball in towards Billy Norman but it went over his head and bounced over the bar with Bray’s goalkeeper Lee Brandon caught in no man’s land.
McGraynor responded almost instantly for Bray and after Darren Quigley produced a fine save to stop Donnachadh O Midheach, Éire Óg tagged on a couple of points to make it five points to two.
There were warning signs there for Éire Óg though. Lennon won any ball coming in towards him and the Quigley save apart, McGraynor also got in behind the Éire Óg defence but his fisted attempt came back off the upright.
Bray did get the next two scores to reduce the deficit to a point, Lennon with the first before being fouled for the second.
Éire Óg ended the half with a flourish however, reeling off two unanswered points to lead by three at half time.
Bray started the second half extremely well, scoring 1-01 in the space of two minutes. Johnny Kinch won possession from the throw in and passed to the unmarked Niall Gaffney. He played a one-two with Lennon before feeding Eoin McCormack who galloped into the space vacated by Lennon to easily dispatch the ball into the bottom corner. Delightfully simple. Gaffney added the point from 45 metres.
Éire Óg looked a little shook and kicked a couple of wides, Hayden guilty of taking a terribly shot, before they decided to hit Norman with the ball and reap the reward. He caught the first ball and kicked a beauty over his left shoulder and while he didn’t win the second ball, Conor O’Doherty was forced to touch the ball on the ground and concede a free. Hayden couldn’t miss from 21 metres to regain the lead.
The teams kicked six points between them in the next ten minutes, Éire Óg with four of them to increase the lead to three. Back came Bray, Lennon and Gaffney pointing either side of a James Cranley effort to leave two be- tween them as the game entered injury time.
A two point lead, never safe. Bray pushed forward for the goal. Quigley went towards Anto Byrne with his kick out. It wasn’t won clean but Byrne got a boot on it into Hayden’s grateful hands. He found Cranley, back to Hayden, across to Norman, goal. Two league points signed, sealed and delivered.
Scorers – Éire Óg: Darren Hayden (2f) 0-05; Darren Quigley (2f, 1 45) 0-03; Billy Norman 1-01; James Cranley 0-02; Dominic O’Brien, Dominic O’Reilly, Eoghan McPhibilin 0-01 each.
Bray Emmets: Niall Gaffney (3f) 0-04; Eoin McCormack 1-00; Niall McGraynor (2f) 0-03; Marc Lennon 0-02.
Éire Óg: Darren Quigley; Brian Lawless, Dominic O’Brien, Matthew Maguire; James Woods, Dominic O’Reilly, Craig Smullen; Anto Byrne, Pearse Kelly; Daniel Kelly, Darren Hayden, James Cranley; Peter Keane, Billy Norman Eoghan McPhibilin. Subs: Daniel Webb for Dominic O’Brien (37 mins); Sean Lawless for Craig Smullen (55 mins); Dominic O’Brien for Daniel Webb (57 mins, BC).
Bray Emmets: Lee Brandon; Mark Linehan, Conor O’Doherty, Philip Haughton; Andrew Reynolds, Ben McCormack, Tadhg Dornan; Niall Gaffney, Johnny Kinch; Donnachadh O’Midheach, Eoin McCormack, Niall McGraynor; Ross McAnespie, Marc Lennon, Dylan Terry. Subs: Adam Dixon for Ross McAnespie (HT); John O’Keefe for Dylan Terry (48 mins); Padraig Doyle for Johnny Kinch (51 mins); Gavin Dowling for Philip Haughton (53 mins, BC).
Referee: Eddie Leonard