Seals the deal
then Tony Darcy benefited from Declan Peppard’s advantage from a foul on Alan Dillon to point, while the last say of a very poor opening half went to Patrick O’Connor who sent Blessington in leading by 0-05 to 0-03.
Mikey O’Connor’s introduction for Eddie Boylan brought a fresh urgency to the Blessington attack after the break and he pointed within two minutes of his arrival and went wide a moment later.
Michael Nugent increased the Blessington lead to four and Jordan Nolan kept the momentum going to make it 0-08 to 0-03 after eight minutes.
It was all Blessington now and points from Mikey O’Connor, Kevin Hanlon, and Patrick O’Connor left them firmly in the driver’s seat. Alan Dillon pointed from a free to make it 0-11 to 0-04 but to be brutally honest you just couldn’t see where the Tinahely scores were going to come from.
Barry O’Donovan sent in Curtis Geraghty for Jordan Nolan with 15 gone in the second half and it was Geraghty who would kill off this game completely. He popped over a point after Curtis Keating had blocked superbly from Michael Nugent, added a second moments later and then got on the end of a powerful Eoin Keogh run to blast home past Niall Byrne for the game’s only goal and the final nail in the Tinahely coffin.
Late points from Anto McLoughlin and Eoin Keogh put the icing on the Blessington cake. Barry O’Donovan’s men looked better than they have done so far but they’ll face an entirely different animal in the shape of St Pat’s in the quarter-finals and will need an enormous improvement to come through that battle.
Scorers – Blessington: Curtis Geraghty 1-02, Mick McLoughlin 0-02, Michael Nugent 0-02, Patrick O’Connor 0-02, Mikey O’Connor 0-02, Eddie Boylan 0-01, Jordan Nolan 0-01, Kevin Hanlon 0-01, Anto McLoughlin 0-01, Eoin Keogh 0-01.
Tinahely: David Blake 0-01, Curtis Keating 0-01, Tony Darcy 0-01, Alan Dillon 0-01 (f).
Blessington: Stephen Kitt; Barry Murphy, Steven Bohan, Kevin Hanlon; Kevin John Rogers, Paul McLoughlin, Conor Kenny; Eoin Keogh, Bryan Carroll; Mick McLoughlin, Patrick O’Connor, Anto McLoughlin; Michael Nugent, Eddie Boylan, Jordan Nolan. Subs: Mikey O’Connor for E Boylan (H/T), Curtis Geraghty for J Nolan (45min), Daragh Ryan for M Nugent (56min), Declan Fennessy for B Murphy (60min).
Tinahely: Niall Byrne; Laurence Keating, Michael Byrne, James Tyrrell; Curtis Keating, Conor Hatton, John Blake; Rory Stokes, Brian Walsh; Alan Nolan, Willie Dillon, David Blake; Jason Cush, Alan Dillon, Tony Darcy. Subs: Stephen Dillon for J Cush (36min), Niall Dempsey for D Blake (45min), Jamie Cullen for John Blake (52min), Gavin Kenny for R Stokes (55min).
Referee: Declan Peppard
ÉIRE ÓG NEWTOWN 1-22 0-10
ÉIRE ÓG secured their place in the SFC quarter-finals with a thumping win over Newtown in this Renault SFC Group 2 clash at Pearse’s Park, Arklow on Friday evening.
The win ensured that Greystones topped the group while condemning Newtown to the Keating Trophy, where they’ll have to battle it out to ensure their Senior status for next year.
The Greystones men were far too strong, fit and athletic on the day and by half-time they had racked up an incredible 16 points and held an unassailable lead.
Darren Hayden was outstanding as time and again he won balls around the middle before sauntering past tackles while Enda King was also a stand out for the winners before being dismissed in the final moments of the first half for a second bookable offence.
With a man less to take on, Newtown did improve somewhat in the second half but there is no disguising the 15-point drubbing shown on the score line and they will be bitterly disappointed with their showing.
They battled hard at times and showed glimpses of good football but were beaten by a much fitter and well drilled side.
Éire Óg were very effective at filtering back in numbers and strong in the tackle which made it nigh on impossible for Newtown to get through their rear guard at times. They also broke fast and supplied good ball into the likes of Daniel Woods and Seán Lawless who were afforded far too much time and space.
Ironically, it was Newtown who registered the first score as Ross Davis converted a hard won free after good work from Seán Heffernan in attack. That was about as good as it got for Newtown though and after being fouled Darren Hayden dusted himself down to send over a cracking score from the stand side.
It seemed like there might be something of a match ahead when Ciaran McGuirl hit over a lovely score on the turn but Éire Óg soon signalled their intent with five points in as many minutes to open up a gap early on.
The pick of the scores came after two delicious long balls in a row from Craig Smullen and Enda King set up Daniel Woods to swivel and shoot over on the left side.
King was immense in the first half for the winners. He claimed four brilliant catches in the air and supplied great balls into the forward line time and again as well as kicking two points himself. He has a real physical presence and a great engine so if Greystones are to challenge at the latter end of the championship they will need him for the full 60 minutes.
The rest of the first half was effectively a game of backs and forwards as Newtown simply struggled to win any of either their own or Greystones kick outs with Darren Hayden, Justin O’Brien and Eoghan McHugh cleaning up.
That afforded the forwards in blue plenty of scoring chances and they duly obliged as points from the likes of Daniel Keane, Seán Lawless and Woods saw them outscore Newtown by 10 points to 1 between the 10th minute and half time.
The only blemish on the card for Éire Óg was the dismissal of King who was shown the line after a rash tackle saw him receive a black card which added up to red as he had already received an earlier yellow.
The sending off had no bearing on the result but Newtown were vastly improved in the second half although Éire Óg still won the period by two points.
Ross Davies, Ciarán McGuirl and substitute Luke Martin added slight respectability to the score with pointed efforts.
Éire Óg kept chipping away with points however and they rubbed salt in the Newtown wounds four minutes from time as Daniel Woods finished off a fine solo run from the side line with a class finish into the top right corner of the onion bag.
Newtown hit over four of the last six scores but it’s a game that the men in black will want to forget in a hurry and they will have to pick themselves up and improve if they are to remain Senior for next year.
Éire Óg are where they want to be but they will have learned very little from this outing. Their reward for topping the group is a quarter final against county champions and possible favourites for the title Baltinglass and only then will we see how good this team actually is.
Scorers - Éire Óg: Daniel Woods 1-4, Darren Hayden 0-5 (0-3 F), Daniel Keane 0-2, Enda King 0-2, Sean Lawless 0-2, Eoghan McPhibilin 0-2, Pearse Kelly 0-2, Liam McGuire 0-1, Jamie McDonald 0-1, James Delahunty 0-1 (F).
Newtown: Ross Davis 0-5 (0-4 F), Ciarán McGuirl 0-2, Luke Martin 0-2, Seán Gregory 0-1.
Éire Óg: Lorcan Treanor, Liam McGuire, Leon Browne, Peter Keane, Darren Hayden, Craig Smullen, Eoghan McHugh, Justin O’Brien, Pearse Kelly, Daniel Keane, Enda King, Jamie McDonald, Seán Lawless, Eoghan McPhibilin, Daniel Woods. Subs: Stephen Kelly for Darren Hayden, Dominic Reilly for Pierce Kelly, Billy Cuddihy for Eoghan McPhibilin, Fintan O’Shea for Jamie McDonald, James Delahunty for Seán Lawless.
Newtown: Ken Turner, Glen Carthy, Neil Martin, Robert Greenan, Karl Carthy, Oisín Greenan, Aaron Toner, Paul O’Riordan, Mark Fitzsimons, Seán Gregory, Seán Heffernan Senior, Ross Davis, Ciarán McGuirl, Cathal McNicholas, Barry Davis. Subs: Luke Martin for Ciarán McGuirl, Stephen Kelly for Glen Carthy, Daniel Brady for Cathal McNicholas, John O’Donoghue for Aaron Toner.
Referee: Garreth Whelan