VALLEYMOUNT IN FYING FORM
VALLEYMOUNT 0-19 BARNDARRIG 1-09 VALLEYMOUNT kicked off their Boom Platform Hire Junior A Championship campaign in swashbuckling fashion with a commanding win over Barndarrig last Saturday evening.
The game took place in near perfect conditions for a game of football in Roundwood, with only a swirling breeze posing any minor problems for the sides.
Despite the fact that our recent heatwave appeared to be coming to an end on Saturday evening, Barndarrig started like they were still on the beach, 99 in hand.
By contrast, Valleymount took to the task at hand with the enthusiasm of a child down at Clogga Strand with their bucket and spade, all set to dig a hole all the way down to Australia.
The men in red were camped out in the Barndarrig half for much of the opening quarter, absolutely decimating the Barndarrig kickout. While the Barndarrig midfielders and half forwards were getting up to the ball well, their opposition continuously disrupted the catch and crowded around the ball for the breaks with all the fervor and excitement of a bunch of young bachelors out on the town when they see a hen party enter the pub.
This relentless pressure from Valleymount reaped dividends as they quickly opened up a fourpoint lead with scores from Brian Flynn, Stephen Byrne and Declan Cahill (twice). Valleymount continued to exert pressure high up the field, forcing numerous turnovers from the Barndarrig defence.
While this left considerable space in the Valleymount half, Barndarrig struggled to take advantage of this. These quick turnovers meant that time and again the Valleymount forwards had plenty of space to work with as they played the ball into a scoring position.
When Barndarrig did stall the attack sufficiently to leave time to get tight to their men, Valleymount still created openings on the back of superb work from a simply rampant midfield pairing of Stephen Flanagan and Declan Cahill. The dynamic duo constantly had their markers on the back foot and their surges into enemy territory kept forcing the Barndarrig backs to make the decision whether to press towards the ball and leave their men or stick tight and leave space to run into, a recipe for disaster for any team.
Valleymount took full advantage of this, racking up an impressive 0-12 to 0-03 lead at half-time. The pick of the Valleymount scores came from Liam Miley, who nailed a sensational effort off his left from wide on the right in the middle of a personal run of three points in quick succession. Miley enjoyed a fine game and finished the day with three points and two assists.
The half-time scoreline could have taken on a different complexion had Martin Cullen, who impressed throughout, been able to convert an admittedly awkward goal chance in what was Barndarrig’s best opportunity to ignite a spark in the opening period.
Nine points adrift, Barndarrig needed a quick start to the second half and that was exactly what they got when Kevin Dempsey was taken down inside the area in the opening minute. Hughie Doyle stepped up and converted with
aplomb to give his side a glimmer of hope.
However, that hope was quickly extinguished by Valleymount who immediately went up the field to get one of the scores of the game. A long ball forward to Shay Geoghegan was expertly flicked into the path of the onrushing Stephen Flanagan. Flanagan carried into traffic before popping the ball back to Declan Cahill. Showing composure, Cahill quickly found Mick Richardson’s run across the field who slotted between the posts.
Valleymount extended their lead back out to nine points in the following minutes and from then on Barndarrig never really looked like getting back in the game, particularly when both Kevin Dempsey and Enda Dempsey were forced to depart proceedings within minutes of each other with two nasty looking injuries.
Credit must go to Barndarrig who battled on until the end, particularly Jacques McCall and Martin Cullen, who shipped some ferocious hits but kept coming back for more, but the damage done in the first half was simply too much to survive.
Their misery was compound- ed when Michael Murphy was dismissed in the closing stages with a straight red card for taking out his frustration on an opponent after giving away a free. Strangely, the red card was greeted with one of the loudest cheers of the day from the stand. This was particularly odd considering the superb show Valleymount had put on throughout.
Valleymount will be delighted with their day’s work, the impressive scoreline of 0-19 to 1-09 will be all the sweeter when one considers the fact that they had 11 different scorers on the day and every last one of these scores came from play, an impressive feat.
Furthermore, there is still scope for this attack to improve as, incredibly, Valleymount missed as many scoring opportunities as Barndarrig had all game.
Finally, special mention must go to Valleymount goalkeeper Paul Miley who put on an exhibition of kick passing out of hand whenever the ball found its way to him in open play, with a right foot so cultured it belongs in a museum.
Scorers – Valleymount: Stephen Flanagan 0-01, Declan Cahill 0-03, Liam Miley 0-03, Stephen
Byrne0-03, Shane Hughes 0-01, Brian Flynn 0-03, Mick Richardson 0-01, Shay Geoghegan 0-01, James Fitzpatrick 0-01, Jack Slattery 0-02.
Barndarrig: Michael Murphy 0-02 (2f), Martin Cullen 0-02 (1f), Hughie Doyle 1-00 (p), Jimmy Waldron 0-01, (f), Philip Kinsella 0-01, Kevin Dempsey 0-01.
Valleymount: Paul Miley; Mark Carroll, Steven Cahill, Eamonn Mahon; Brian Miley, Darragh Browne, William Kavanagh; Stephen Flanagan, Declan Cahill; Liam Miley, Stephen Byrne, Shane Hughes; Brian Flynn, Mick Richardson, Shay Geoghegan. Subs: David Richardson, Derek Reid, Glen Cullen, James Fitzpatrick, Adam Condon, Paul Foster, Jack Slattery, Shane Flynn, Shane Browne, Daragh Callanan.
Barndarrig: Jamie Roe; Johnny Devereaux, James Quinn, Keith Bradshaw; James Cullen, Jacques McCall, Shane Whelan; Paul Ryan, Michael Murphy; Martin Cullen, Hughie Doyle, Michael Cullen; Jimmy Waldron, Philip Kinsella, Niall Garvey. Subs: Kevin Cullen, Fergal Twomey, John Twomey, Tom Doyle, Nicky Sinnott, Ian Jones, Kevin Dempsey, Enda Dempsey, Richard Sheane, Max Moriarty.