Carnew earn two big points
McCrea and Kavanagh key
DONARD-THE GLEN CARNEW EMMETS 0-7 0-8
CARNEW took a brace of Division 2 league points home, after their visit to a bitterly cold Donard in a hard-fought, tight encounter played under lights last Friday night.
Carnew were four points up within the opening ten minutes with a blistering start with points from the boot of John Kavanagh (3) and a point by Brendan McCrea, who was a thorn in the home side defence all night with a lot of persistent fouling in the full-back line.
Donard missed three chances with some rushed shooting before Colin Osborne finally got them up and running in the 15th minute to close out the opening quarter.
Both sides traded a brace of wides before John Kavanagh who was very instrumental landed his fourth and fifth of the contest as Carnew pushed the cushion out to five going into the closing stages.
However, the homeside rallied late, with a monster of a pointed free from the trusted boot of Brian Lennon and another pointed free from Harry Mangan to leave the half-time score reading 0-03 to 0-06 in favour of the Emmets.
Kildare man Tadhg Fennin must have given his troops one hell off a team talk during the interval as the Glen men had levelled proceedings within the opening six minutes with some clinical all out attacking football.
Darren O’Neill pointed first before Alan Daly reduced the defecit to the minimum in the 34th minute.
Harry Mangan levelled the game from a free as Donard looked to drive on. Carnew withdrew the evergreen Diarmuid Doran, who had battled well, and some fresher legs were introduced by manager James Hickey, who himself was only short of donning the famous blue and gold at stages here.
Brendan McCrea again put the visitors ahead with a powerful point to close out the third quarter as the intensity increased.
Andrew Hughes broke down a lot of Donard offensive play in the next few exchanges and Carnew pushed the lead out to two with another point by the industrious McCrea.
Donard rallied again and should have goaled but Willy Collins had two inspirational blocks for Carnew to hold onto to their lead.
Donard wasted a couple of chances with some rushed shot selections.
A pointed free from the boot of the mighty Brian Lennon put the game into the melting pot, just on the stroke of the full-time whistle.
The game really opened up going into the five additional minutes of injury time.
A John Kavanagh 45 crashed back out off the upright and a Brendan McCrea goal bound follow up went the wrong side off the post to seal the deal.
Donard got a brace of chances to level but a resilient Carnew outfit held out as the final whistle sounded.
Scorers - Donard-The-Glen: Brian Lennon 0-02 (1f), Harry Mangan 0-02 (2f), Alan Daly 0-01, Darren O’Neill 0-01, Colin Osborne 0-01.
Carnew Emmets: John Kavanagh 0-05 (3f), Brendan McCrea 0-03.
Colm Toomey; Kevin Osborne, Alan Tutty, William Rooney; Ger Healy, Joe Whyte, Harry Mangan; Colin Osborne, Brian Lennon; Conor Kelly, Niall Curran, Darren O’Neill; Dermot Daly, Alan Daly, Ray Halloran. Subs: Mikey Daly, Colm O’Neill.
Cormac Doyle; Niall Osborne, Paul Nolan, William Collins; Andrew Hughes, John Walshe, Adam Hughes; Padraig Doran, Diarmuid Doran; Jack Doyle, John Kavanagh’ Drew Brennan; Paudie McGing, Brendan McCrea, Nick Skelton. Subs: Enda Donohoe, Micheal Collins, Conall McCrea, Micheal Rock.
Stephen Fagan (Balt- inglass)