BLESSINGTON
reverse hand pass over his shoulder to release Bryan Cullen, who made no mistake hitting the nets top corner from 10 yards. A dream start and you could sense the whole Kiltegan team, management and supporters were galvanised by the goal.
Blessington regrouped and didn’t panic as Mikey and substitute Bryan Carroll landed big scores but there was a feeling that Kiltegan weren’t going away and the game seemed destined to go down to the wire.
Derek Daly had a goal disallowed for Kiltegan, having been deemed to kick the ball out of Jack Gilligan’s hands, before Fergal Harmon made an outstanding save from Mikey O’Connor when the diminutive forward seemed certain to bury it.
Ronan Byrne made a lung bursting gallop up the pitch and gave off to Bryan Cullen who seemed to be running down a blind alley before somehow managing to squeeze over a point from the left.
Seanie then stepped up and ballooned a free over from forty yards before Liam Keogh gave Kiltegan the lead for the first time for the left wing.
Blessington levelled again before the first of two match defining plays.
A long ball was lofted to the Kiltegan forwards, which hopped between the two lines. Seanie swooped in for a ball he had no right to win.
An easy point was on and would have put Kiltegan ahead with just injury time to play but you could sense Furlong wanted more.
He jinked past the onrushing defender, soloed in and unleashed a rasper to the roof of Stephen Kitts net as he, his teammates and Kiltegan supporters rejoiced.
But that wasn’t the end. Mickey O’Connor landed a sweet score, to leave two in it.
Then the ball was blocked out for a Blessington 45. A point would be no use as it was now well inside the last minute.
The ball was lofted in, ricocheted around before falling to the boot of Kevin Hanlon 10 yards out. Fergal Harmon was rooted as the wing backs shot sailed by him and Kiltegan hearts were set to be broken.
Then cometh the hour cometh the man as Kiltegan’s Jeffery Bermingham hacked the ball off the line before it came back in, hit the post before finally landing in the arms of a grateful Kiltegan man.
They cleared downfield and the whistle blew to end what was undoubtedly the game of the round as Kiltegan pick up a vital two points.
If the rest of the games in championship are half as good as this one we’re in for a hell of a summer.
Scorers - Kiltegan: Seanie Furlong 1-5 (0-5 frees), Bryan Cullen 1-2, Jeffery Birmingham 0-1, Podge O Toole, 0-1, Liam Keogh 0-1, Stephen Farrell 0-1, Ronan Byrne 0-1, Adam Wynne 0-1.
Blessington: Mikey O’Connor 0-7 (0-2 frees), Curtis Gerathy 1-0, David Boothman 1-0, Bryan Carroll 0-2, Patrick O’Connor 0-1, Stephen Bohan 0-1.
Kiltegan: Fergal Harmon, John Farrell, Blaine Harmon, Adam Wynne, Ronan Byrne, Stephen Farrell, Liam Keogh, Rory Finn, Podge O’Toole, Jeffery Bermingham, Bryan Cullen, Micheal Foley, Ciarán Byrne, Seanie Furlong, Derek Daly. Subs: Cathal Fitzgerald for Ciarán Byrne.
Blessington: Stephen Kitt, Barry Murphy, Jack Gilligan, Stephen Bohan, Kevin Hanlon, Paul McLoughlin, Barry Finan, Kevin Rogers, Eoin Keogh, Anthony McLoughlin, Patrick O’Connor, David Boothman, Curtis Gerathy, Micheal Nugent, Mikey O’Connor. Subs: Bryan Carroll for Curtis Gerathy, Conor Kenny for Kenny Rogers, Gavin Murray for David Boothman, Jordan Nolan for Barry Finan.
Referee: John O’Brien
TINAHELY BRAY EMMETS 2-13 1-11
THE 2017 Renault Senior Football Championship got off to an exciting start last Thursday night when the men of Tinahely toppled Bray Emmets thanks to a fine second half performance in Joule Park, Aughrim, on a dreary June evening.
Stars of the show for John Smith’s men were Jason Cush and Alan Dillon, while Marc Lennon was superb for the Bray men in the opening half, with Niall Gaffney and Niall McGraynor also causing problems and substitute Ishmael Mnensa almost certainly playing himself into a starting spot thanks to his input, especially when he was moved on to the very effective Alan Dillon in the latter stages.
There were a number of key moments in a game that featured some outstanding scores over the 60 odd minutes.
The loss of Paul Cunningham to injury after just five minutes robbed Bray of a serious attacking force while the black carding of Bray’s Des Kelly after 19 minutes was a further blow to Bray’s ambitions and looked quite harsh when viewed from afar.
Add to those two occurrences the giving away of a totally unnecessary penalty by Bray’s netminder Paul O’Keeffe and the concession of a soft second goal and you have some of the reasons for this defeat for last year’s county semi-finalists but the Bray men will also have room for optimism given that there is the capability of much improvement on their part.
But it was Tinahely’s day and much of the credit for the victory lies with half-forward Jason Cush and inside dangerman Alan Dillon. It was Cush who sent a screamer of a penalty low and hard past O’Keeffe - who guessed right but just couldn’t get to the screaming missile - and it was him who bravely got on the end of an Alan Dillon sideline ball to flick home past O’Keeffe for the score that probably sealed victory.
Apart from the two goals it was the overall play from Cush that impressed hugely. A player with notable intelligence and clever use of the ball, he is one to keep an eye on as this championship unfolds and would take the man of the match selection of this writer.
Fighting hard for that award would be Alan Dillon who turned the game back in Tinahely’s favour after the start of the second half with two fine points and the creation of another to pull John Smith’s side back from a 1-07 to 1-04 half-time deficit to parity after five minutes. His contribution of five points in total and the sublime sideline ball in front of Cush for the second goal capped a good night for the Tinahely attacker and he will cause any defence problems in what is shaping up to be a very interesting group.
We begin our story with a sweet Niall Gaffney point in the opening minute. Both Bray and Tinahely are isolating two men up front while Stephen Dillon is dropping deep to help out his midfielders under kick outs.
A worrying five efforts from Tinahely in the opening half were dropped into Paul O’Keeffe’s hands but John Smith may look at the glass as being half full from the point of view of the chances being created at least.
Tony Darcy got Tinahely off the mark while Alan Dillon fired wide before pushing them ahead after nine minutes with a superb effort off his left that sailed high over the Rednagh Hill end.
Things were tight until Paul O’Keeffe bundled Alan Dillon over in the square after he had saved superbly from the Tinahely attacker with 20 on the clock.
Up stepped Jason Cush who planted the ball sweetly into the bottom corner to make it 1-03 to 0-02, with Eoin McCormack and Cush notching up the other scores.
A truly lovely score off the outside of Diarmuid Masterson’s right boot gave Bray a major lift and a sublime pass from Marc Lennon unlocked the Tinahely defence and allowed Ben McCormack the space to feed Niall Gaffney and he fired over to leave just a point between the teams.
Stephen Dillon screwed a goal chance just wide at one end before Gaffney tried to find the top corner of Niall Byrne’s net after being picked out by a sweet Marc Lennon pass.
But it was Bray who finished the half the stronger. Tony Darcy pointed for Tinahely but Pádraig Doyle finished to the net thanks to fine work from Lennon and points from Gaffney, Niall McGraynor and a stunner from Marc Lennon sent the north Wicklow men in leading 1-07 to 1-04 and deservedly so.
A strong start from Tinahely had them leading by 1-08 to 1-07 within five minutes of the restart before Adam Dixon and Alan Dillon exchanged points and then Bray sent Ishmael Mnensa to pick up Dillon and the Bray substitute did really well for the remainder of the game.
A well struck free from the ground by Rory Stokes helped Tinahely to a two-point lead but Gaffney pulled one back with a free of his own with 20 gone in the second half and then Alan Dillon released Cush down on top of Paul O’Keeffe and the half-forward did well to help the ball past the Bray netminder and pretty much kill the game.
Tony Darcy and Stephen Dillon pointed two sweet points before Darcy was shown a black card by John Keenan and while Bray added two further points through McGraynor first and then full-back Conor O’Doherty and Tinahely were reduced to 14 with the sending off of Stephen Dillon on a second yellow, an Alan Dillon point finished the scoring and left Tinahely winners by 2-13 to 1-11 to give John Smith’s side a superb start to their 2017 campaign.
Scorers – Tinahely: Alan Dillon 0-05; Tony Darcy 0-05, Jason Cush 2-00 (1p), Alan Nolan 0-01 (f), Rory Stokes 0-01 (f), Stephen Dillon 0-01.
Bray Emmets: Niall Gaffney 0-04 (1f), Niall McGraynor 0-02, Padraig Doyle 1-00, Eoin McCormack 0-01, Diarmuid Masterson 0-01, Marc Lennon 0-01, Adam Dixon 0-01, Conor O’Doherty.
Tinahely: Niall Byrne; Larry Keating, Michael Byrne, James Gilbert; James Tyrrell, Conor Hatton, John Blake; Rory Stokes, Brian Walsh; Curtis Keating, Stephen Dillon, Alan Nolan; Jason Cush, Aland Dillon (17), Tony Darcy. Subs: David Blake for J Tyrrell (52min), Niall Dempsey for C Keating (54min), Jamie Cullen for Tony Darcy (56min, BC).
Bray Emmets: Paul O’Keeffe; Andrew Reynolds, Conor O’Doherty, Philip Haughton; Tadhg Doran, Ben McCormack, Des Kelly; Niall Gaffney (29), Liam Benville; Eoin McCormack, Marc Lennon, Niall McGraynor; Adam Dixon, Paul Cunningham, Diarmuid Masterson. Subs: Pádraig Doyle for P Cunningham (5min, inj), Ishmael Mnensa for D Kelly (19min, BC), Conn Benville for T Dornan (HT).
Referee: John Keenan (Aughrim)