Valleymount victorious at home

VALLEYMOUNT ANNACURRA 1-12 1-06

VALLEYMOUNT welcomed Annacurra into the west last week for their Arklow Bay Hotel Junior ‘C’ football championship encounter.

In a tight opening half, the teams exchanged points early in the game; Stephen Murphy and Colm Maher on target for Annacurra, while Davy Miley and Sean Geoghegan on the scoresheet for Valleymount.

With the team’s level on two points each mid-way through the first half, Annacurra struck for a goal. Full-forward Colm Maher had a shot saved by Valleymount keeper Conor Harpur, leaving Glenn Austin a handy tap in for Annacurra. Valleymount points from Keiv Leonard and Geoghegan again sent the teams in at half-time with a score line of 1-3 to 0-05 in Annacurra’s favour.

The second half started in much the same fashion as the first with the teams exchanging points in the opening five minutes.

However, at this point Valleymount began to push ahead with scores from lively centre forward Gary Mahon, corner forward Geoghegan and a free from Davy Miley.

The team from the west struck a major blow half way through the second half when a low shot across goal was tapped home by Sean Geoghegan who was on hand to add to his tally.

With Valleymount six points up at this stage Annacurra began to stage a comeback of sorts.

They pushed hard in the final quarter with scores coming mainly from full-forward Colm Maher. While they pushed for a goal at one end, Valleymount managed to clip over a couple of insurance scores through the ever present Geoghegan and Mahon to seal the win.

They had some strong performances from the likes of Diarmuid Nugent, Darragh Callaghan and Gary Mahon.

Annacurra battled hard with good showings from Colm Maher, Sean O’Neill and Stephen Murphy. Both teams will now look forward to the next round this Thursday evening.

Scorers - Valleymount: S Geoghegan 1-5, D Miley 0-3 (3 f), G Mahon 0-2, K Leonard 0-1, P Foster 0-1

Annacurra: C Maher 0-5 (2 f), G Austin 1-0, S Murphy 0-1

S Walker; B Shannon, S O’Neill, J Keenan; M Doyle, N Murphy, J Walsh; R Fitzgerald, S Murphy; B McDonald, S O’Neill, D Murphy; J O’Neill, C Maher, G Austin. Subs: P O’Neill for S O’Neill (black card), C Keogh for J O’Neill, M Molloy for D Murphy, S Beattie for J Keenan, L Horan for B McDonald, J Byrne for S Walker.

C Harpur; C Miley, S Browne, D Fitzpatrick; A Miley, P Foster, D Nugent; D Callaghan, D Reid; D Richardson, G Mahon, K Leonard; K Hughes, D Miley, S Geoghegan. Subs: B Nugent for C Miley, A Miley for K Hughes, M Ryan for K Leonard, A Farrington for P Foster (black card).

Liam Cullen