Gregan goals late to salvage a point for Coolboy
COOLBOY HOLLYWOOD 1-8 1-8
FOR the second week running Coolboy’s Michael Gregan was the beloved saviour of Keith Byrne’s side as the handballing Hercules pounced late to rescue his team from the jaws of defeat and earn a point—on this occasion after a tough battle with Hollywood last Thursday evening in Coolafancy.
The men from the west will wonder how they managed to lose this game but the battling qualities of the Coolboy men can’t be discounted when dissecting this Division 3 dogfight on a desperately dead sod.
Had Coolboy taken the glut of scoring opportunities presented to them over the course of this game they could have sailed to victory. However, their finishing left a lot of be desired (12 wides) and excellent performances from Harry Houlihan, Dan Burke and Thomas Kelly had helped Hollywood to what looked to be a certain victory prior to Wayne Kinsella stepping up to a late free with time just up.
Kinsella, who had a good game overall with four points to his name, opted to go for the point, but his shot came back off the upright and dropped like a stone in front of the prowling Michael Gregan who volleyed home much to the delight of the home support to make it 1-8 apiece.
This was a game of some drama and patches of decent football. Hollywood looked the dominant side in the opening half after an early 1-1 got them off to a healthy start and they took a 1-5 to 0-4 lead into the break.
Colin Tutty fired home past Gavin O’Brien after seven minutes for the game’s opening score after good work from Conal Byrne and Kevin Murphy out the field.
Murphy drew both Coolboy corner-backs in before passing to Tutty who escaped the attentions of the retreating Aaron Kinsella to wallop home past an exposed James Gregan and Gavin O’Brien.
Hollywood, playing with a fairly cheeky breeze at this stage, raised their first white flag moments later when Dan Burke sent Phillip Dunne clear and the full-forward slipped over a lovely score.
Coolboy’s shooting was forgettable up to the 13th minute when PJ Mulhall decided to forget this kicking craic and fist over from close range to get the home side off the mark.
Mulhall’s score was made possible by a dazzling dummy sold with all the enthusiasm of a hungry butcher selling a Sunday roast by Michael Gregan.
Almost 10 minutes would pass before the home side would score again and, in that time, Hollywood would increase their lead by three points thanks to points from Conal Byrne, Colin Tutty and a pointed free from Dan Burke. Key to Hollywood’s dominance was the showing from Harry Houlihan.
The corner-back impressed throughout and caused Coolboy plenty of problems with his probing runs.
The pair of PJs, Mulhall and O’Keeffe, combined after 22 minutes with O’Keeffe plucking a high cross-field Mulhall ball from the heavens and sticking it over the bar in that no-nonsense way of his. Wayne Kinsella slotted over a 45 that looked more like a ‘25’ before Dan Burke pointed another free to make it 1-5 to 0-3 to Hollywood.
The two PJs again combined, this time for the last score of the opening half when O’Keeffe drilled a low ball across to Mulhall who two-scooped it up, swerved past a defender like he was on ‘Dancing on Ice’ before hacking it over the bar.
Wayne Kinsella looked set to be the alpha male of the second half when he pulled Coolboy to within two points of the Hollywood men with two converted frees early on.
Keith Byrne, obviously seeking an inspirational move, sent in Anthony Holly in place of Sean Maher just before PJ Mulhall pointed a free following a foul on Michael Gregan to reduce the lead to a point with eight minutes on the second half clock.
Hollywood were not done by any means.
Two points from the impressive Dan Burke (one free) left three between them as the tension and aggression rose out on the field.
A mini shemozzle saw yellow cards issued to Wayne Kinsella and Thomas Kelly, and moments later a second mini shemozzle saw Coolboy’s Adam Barnes and Hollywood’s Paul Kelly dismissed from the fray on straight red cards.
Burke looked to have sealed the win for the visitors with a pointed free to leave four between the teams and it really looking unlikely that Coolboy could really trouble Jamie Tutty’s goal at this stage.
Wayne Kinsella brought it back to a one-score game when he split the posts with a humdinger of a point late on thanks to a scintillating ball from club chairman Damien O’Keeffe dispelling that unfair myth that administration and athletic prowess is beyond most mortals.
Hollywood had chances to pull away in the following few minutes but could only register two wides before a foul on PJ Mulhall gave Wayne Kinsella a chance to reduce the lead.
He went for the point, it crashed off the upright, and there below, waiting like a frustrated disco dancer, was Michael Gregan and he walloped home with aplomb.
Coolboy would have one last chance but PJ O’Keeffe’s effort sailed wide and Garrett Whelan’s final whistled sounded soon after heralding a sharing of the spoils after an entertaining game.
Scorers – Coolboy: Wayne Kinsella 0-4 (2f), PJ Mulhall 0-3, Michael Gregan 1-0, PJ O’Keeffe 0-1.
Hollywood: Dan Burke 0-4 (4f), Colin Tutty 1-1, Phillip Dunne 0-1, Conal Byrne 0-1, Thomas Kelly 0-1.
Gavin O’Brien; Bradley Walsh, James Gregan, Enda Gethings; Garret Gregan, Aaron Kinsella, Jonathan Smyth; Wayne Kinsella, PJ O’Keeffe; Sean Maher, PJ Mulhall, Adam Barnes; Michael Gregan, Stuart Boyd, Johnny Willoughby. Subs: Damien O’Keeffe for S Boyd 22min), Anthony Holly for S Maher (36min).
Jamie Tutty; Harry Houlihan, Kevin Cullen, Adam Coyne; Paul Kelly, John Mooney, Robert Houlihan; Kevin Murphy, Nathan O’Sullivan; Thomas Kelly, Dan Burke, Conal Byrne; Colin Tutty, Phillip Dunne, Keith Peppard. Subs: Stephen Burke for J Mooney.
Garrett Whelan (Kiltegan)