Super success for Éire Óg Greystones
Greystones side put wasteful St Nicholas to the sword
ÉIRE ÓG 3-13 ST NICHOLAS 1-12
ÉIRE ÓG were crowned under-15 A county champions with victory over a St Nicholas team that will rue their missed chances. They kicked nine wides, dropped three shots short and forced Éire Óg goalkeeper Sean O’Neill into a couple of good saves.
Éire Óg never seemed to dominate this game and if possession stats were available they would probably show that St Nicholas had most of the possession. However, Éire Óg were far more economical with the ball and took their goals and points when they were presented to run out deserving winners.
They won the midfield battle and always looked like they would cause trouble in the St Nicholas half of the field every time they entered. Their tactics also paid off in huge dividends. In the first half they brought many of their players back outside the St Nicholas 45 and exploited that space created for two of their goals.
Luke Dorgan was positioned as a sweeper and St Nicholas played straight into his hands on far too many occasions, especially in the second half when they were chasing the game and resorting to kicking the ball long rather than more effectively running at the Éire Óg defence.
Indeed, much of their good start came from this hard running that Éire Óg couldn’t handle. Straight from the throw-in, Alan Miley went straight through the defence and stung the hands of Sean O’Neill with a fierce shot. Roy Byrne opened the scoring at the other end but St Nicholas came back to lead by five points to two by the 13th minute and were all over Éire Óg.
Pick of the scores was Shane Daly taking the ball outside the 45 and taking off like he was late for mass, easing past one defender and dummying another before splitting the posts.
Mickey O’Rourke scored another that was pure simplicity when he was out in front of his man, played a one-two and popped the ball over the bar.
If the opening 13 minutes were all St Nicholas, the next seven belonged to Éire Óg who would go from three points down to five points up.
Cillian Keane kicked over his first and when Brian Keogh took his kick out no player was within 30 metres of his goal. Luke Dorgan won the kick out and the ball was played into the acres of space for Joseph Prendergast to run on to and finish with ease.
He added a well taken point before they scored their second goal similar to the first. Conor Fulham won the kick out uncontested and he played it over the St Nicholas full-back line for Jack Nicholson to score the goal. Whether it was something planned or not Éire Óg exploited a St Nicholas defensive frailty.
Both teams added a point to make it 2-05 to 6 but St Nicholas were given a boost before half time when Shane Daly scored a goal. Once again his direct running caused Éire Óg a problem though they could legitimately question the number of steps he took. The goal stood however and Éire Óg led by 2-05 to 1-06 at half time.
The second half started with a flurry of scores, St Nicholas bringing the game back to a point before Éire Óg, courtesy of Roy Byrne, put three between the teams. When Mickey O’Rourke scored in the 41st minute there were two between the teams, 2-08 to 1-09. Then came a hammer blow for St Nicholas from which they could not recover.
Eoin O’Neill made a good run from midfield and lobbed Brian Keogh in the St Nicholas goal with a left footed shot. It is fairly likely O’Neill went for a point though he probably wouldn’t admit such a thing! The goal caused consternation for St Nicholas and they were lucky to only concede a point from their short kick out which went awry.
They didn’t lie down however and let Éire Óg run amok, reeling off the next two points to reduce the game to four points, 3-09 to 1-11. They needed to keep up that momentum but instead Éire Óg kicked two points to take the wind out of the St Nicholas sails. Missed chances and wayward passes to the Éire Óg sweeper Luke Dorgan didn’t help matters towards the end.
Éire Óg kicked over a couple of late points to win well and usher in the next generation of stars for the north Wicklow club.
Scorers – Éire Óg: Roy Byrne (4f) 0-05; Joseph Prendergast 1-02; Jack Nicholson 1-01; Eoin O’Neill 1-00; Cillian Keane, Toby Owens 0-02 each; Fionn Melia 0-01.
St Nicholas: Shane Daly (1f) 1-04; Mickey O’Rourke 0-04; Joe Mills (2f) 0-03; Conor Kearney 0-01.
Éire Óg: Sean O’Neill; Colm Condron, Neill Brown, Daniel Healy; Cillian Keane, Thade Shanahan, Colm Shortt; Eoin O’Neill, Gerhard Zdunek; Conor Fulham, Roy Byrne, Cian Hynes; Joseph Prendergast, James Nicholson, Luke
Dorgan. Subs: Indi Kenny for Cillian Keane (Blood Sub 2-9); Indi Kenny for Colm Shortt (35 mins); Toby Owens for Gerhard Zdunek, Max Scully for Colm Condron (both 41 mins); Fionn Melia; Conor O’Donovan for James Nicholson (52 mins).
St Nicholas: Brian Keogh; Ronan Kelly, Oisin Traynor, Mark Murtagh; Tadgh McCarthy, Tom Moran, Willie Eager; Jack Grace, Alan Miley; Jack Reid, Shane Daly, Rory Martin; Joe Mills, Mickey O’Rourke, Conor Kearney. Subs: Jack Rouse for Mark Murtagh (52 mins); Sean Metcalfe for Jack Reid (57 mins); Meitheal Cleary for Rory Martin (59 mins).
Referee: Eddie Leonard