Tinahely power to easy victory over Stratford
TINAHELY STRATFORD-G’CON 3-10 0-3
AS forgetful a game as you could imagine was played out between these two sides in front of a small crowd in Joule Park Aughrim last Friday evening with the only thing learned without a shadow of a doubt is that Tinahely are the team to beat in the Intermediate grade this year.
The one concern Alan Costello may have, is the absence of any real tooth-and-nail kind of test to date apart from the cracker of a game of football between themselves and AGB in the drawn league final.
A close enough opener against Kilmac got their pulses racing but straight-forward victories over Dunlavin, Ballinacor and now Stratford-Grangecon have followed which begs the question as to how they will perform in the face of stronger outfits.
The answer is probably very well given the brand of football they are playing and the confidence with which they are dismantling teams. Their hunger for goals is unmistakable with 16 green flags having been raised by the Tinahely men across four games and it is that brand of attacking, rapacious play that has caused nightmares for some teams this season so far.
A dreadful first half saw Tinahely lead Stratford-Grangecon by 1-4 to 0-2 at the break. You know those games where very little if anything goes right for you out on the field - well this was one of those evenings for both teams in the opening 30 minutes with errors turning the game into the opposite of what it might have been.
Key to Tinahely’s progress has been the performances of Rory Stokes at full-forward and it was the burly attacker who caused the first Tinahely goal when he fired a missile at Patrick Cronin which the Stratford-Grangecon keeper saved only for the predator Paddy O’Rourke to be on hand to fire home from close range.
That sent Tinahely into a 1-3 to 0-2 lead with Stratford-Grangecon recording points from two Ross Coogan frees and Tinahely raising white flags thanks to O’Rourke, James Hedderman and Stephen Dillon before that first major.
A point for Tony Darcy is marked in this reporter’s notebook just above a scrawled ‘weird game’ and just before Alan Dillon entered the fray for Paddy O’Rourke who looked to have picked up some sort of hamstring injury.
The game was a s good as over in the opening 10 minutes of the second half when Rory Stokes and Stephen Dillon found the back of the Stratford-Grangecon net either side of points from Tony Darcy and James Hedderman to make it 3-6 to 0-2.
Stratford-Grangecon would bag their last score, a sweet effort from Matthew Manley, after 18 minutes but there was only one team in this from start to finish and they march on unbeaten and largely untested.
Scorers – Tinahely: Paddy O’Rourke 1-1, Stephen Dillon 1-2, Rory Stokes 1-0, Tony Darcy 0-3, Noel Mulhall 0-2, James Hedderman 0-2.
Stratford-Grangecon: Ross Coogan 0-2, Matthew Manley 0-1.
Alan Nolan; Larry Keating, Michael Byrne, James Gilbert; Kevin Mulhall, Curtis Keating, John Blake; Noel Mulhall, Conor Hatton; Paddy O’Rourke, Jason Cush, Stephen Dillon; Tony Darcy, Rory Stokes, James Hedderman. Subs: Alan Dillon, Daniel Ging, James Tyrrell and Jamie Cullen.
Patrick Cronin; Joseph O’Neill, Patrick Walsh, Ian Moore; Ruairi Phelan, Jason Bolger, Marcus Hanbidge; Matthew Manley, Michael Mangan; Mark Murphy, Alan Norton, Ross Coogan; Colin Byrne, Diarmuid Cronin, Kieran Byrne. Subs: James Barrett, Adam Doyle, Larry McGrath. Eddie Leonard (St Pat’s)