Stroll for Avondale

Hosts cruise to a facile fifteen-point win over Ashford

AVONDALE ASHFORD 1-16 0-4

AVONDALE picked up a home win at the expense of Ashford on Thursday evening.

This was an Avondale team who looked sharp and well capable of playing good, fast moving football that you would associate with summer time.

In attack, they could find holes in the Ashford with Darren Beevor and Callum Busher linking with the impressive Ross Ward at full-forward who looked a class above every other player on the field and who was without a doubt the stand out player of this game.

The ageless Seamus McGraynor featured strongly at midfield.

In defence, Avondale were miserable throughout with each member of the backs proving solid, half backs Conor Sheehan and Harrison Penn also attacked brilliantly along with a solid defensive performance.

For Ashford, however, the outlook is much less positive, porous in defence and lacking conviction and intent going forward, one of the brighter views was the potential attacking platform they could have from the kick outs of goalkeeper Paul Conyard who was always seeking to place to ball in front of a runner to secure possession rather than launching a long ball up field.

The first 15 minutes were a lively with both teams looking confident.

Avondale sharp-shooter Ross Ward opened the scoring within two minutes, soon after two poor wides from Avondale they unlocked the Ashford defence for the first time,

Ward placed a lovely weighted pass in behind the Ashford fullback line who had been dragged out, Callum Busher gathered the ball and blazed over the bar in what should have been a goal.

This seemed to wake Ashford up slightly who started moving in attack, shooting two bad wides before opening their account on eight minutes from a free, coming from the boot of Darren Doyle.

In response, Ross ward kicked three unanswered points, capitalising on poor Ashford defensive play, a great individual run from 45 yards and finally finishing after a break from midfield through Seamus McGraynor.

With 15 minutes played Avondale led 5-1 with Ross Ward kicking four of those five points.

Ashford again began to find themselves on the ball going forward again but failed to turn possession into scores kicking another two wides.

At the other end, Avondale didn’t make the same mistakes with Ward again followed by McGraynor after good link play from Conor Sheehan and Anthony Byrne on the right-hand side.

Callum Busher then kicked his second score of the day after Conor Sheehan won a ball in his own half-back line, found Ross Ward with the pass who then slipped Busher through with an easy finish from 30 meters.

The remaining scores of the half came from the boot of Ross Ward and Karl Phelan after a great save from Ashford goalkeeper Paul Conyard. Colm Doyle and Wayne O’Gorman kicked a score a piece for Ashford to leave seven between them at half time, 0-11 to 0-4.

The second half of this game was not as open as the first with Ashford improving slightly in defence at times but offering nothing going forward failing to score in the second half at all, it must be taken into account though that they pushed or goals towards the end where they would have taken easy point opportunities.

They kicked wides and dropped many balls short suggestion a serious lack of conviction.

Avondale eased through the second half keeping the score board ticking over due to the efforts of McGraynor in the middle, the slick Ross Ward and Karl Phelan and Callum Busher adding to their tallies for the day.

The home side added another goal and point to push the Avondale lead to 15 points by the time the final whistle sounded.