Bray enjoy comfortable victory over Tinahely
1-9 0-5
BRAY EMMETS had a comfortable win in the quarter-final of the Junior ‘B’ football championship when they played Tinahely in Ballinakill on Thursday night last, September 24.
The Tinahely cause was not helped by the dismissal of their centre back John Blake on a red card in the minutes leading up to half-time. Turning over to face into the second half with 14 players and five points adrift left the Tinahely men with a very steep hill to climb in the second period.
It looked so much better for Tinahely in the opening quarter of the game. They were the livelier of the two teams and were moving the ball quickly to the attack and were stretching the Emmets defence.
David Dillon and Daniel Hederman were in control at midfield and Dillon raised the first white flag for Tinahely after four minutes. Bray Emmets were slow to get going even though corner forward Ishmael Mnensa and full-forward Brian Nesbitt were showing well on a limited supply of ball. Nesbitt levelled play from a free after six minutes.
Tinahely continued to have the better of the exchanges but found the Bray full-back line to be a big stumbling block. Despite good approach work by the Tinahely attack, their efforts at scores broke down and there was no further score for either side until after the water break when Anthony Phelan put Tinahely ahead again with a shot squeezed just inside the right post after 19 minutes.
Two minutes later the Emmets went ahead. Corner-forward Ishmael Mnensa fed Gavin Dowling, who set up Mark Cullen to fire a great shot to the roof of the Tinahely net. 1-1 to 0-2 now and Bray held
a lead that they would not lose.
The rain arrived now and left playing conditions very slippery. Bray appeared to adjust the better and added three further points from Brian Nesbitt frees to lead by 1-4 to 0-2 at half-time. Just before the break for half-time John Blake incurred the wrath of the referee and received a red card.
At the other end Bray full-back Jack Treacy, who was having a great battle with Brian Hickey, made one spectacular catch in his own goalmouth when he took down and controlled the ball with one hand.
Tinahely battled hard to get back into the game in the early stages of the second half but Bray were now in a position to funnel back into defence and crowd out the attackers. Brian Hickey appeared to have moved back to the middle third of the field to cover in the defence.
The first score of the half came from Brian Nesbitt when set up by Ishmael Mnensa. The pacey Bray number 13 was the regular target of clearances down the right wing and he in turn distributed to incoming forwards.
Nesbitt at full-forward was accurate off either foot, both from frees and play. Tinahely sprang replacements from their bench early on
and Jack Murray, Damien Cullen, Brendan Barnes and Cian O’Neill came on in a five-minute period.
Damien Cullen pointed from play and David Dillon, operating in front of goal added another point following a mark. But Bray had their safety cushion of a five/ six-point lead and kept breaking up field for the occasional score.
Tinahely really needed a goal to have a chance of making a fight of it in the end. To their credit they continued to battle on and Anthony Phelan added another point near the end. Bray were patient and ran out deserving winners on a score of 1-9 to 0-5.
BRAY EMMETS: Paul O’Keeffe; Mark Lenihan, Jack Treacy, Philip Haughton; Ronan Twohig, Finn Green, Colin Clarke; Gavin Dowling (0-1), Mark Cullen (1-0); Donnchadh O Midheach, Alan Cleary, Ross Masterson; Ishmael Mnensa (0-1), Brian Nesbitt (0-7, 5f), Ross McEnespy. Subs: David Martin for Ishmael Mnensa, David Nesbitt for Ross Masterson, Dara Ó Hannaidh for Donnchadh O Midheach. TINAHELY: Alan Lillis; Adam Hadden, Laurence Keating, Raymond McGlynn; Jamie Cullen, John Blake, Niall Gorman; Daniel Hederman, David Dillon (0-2); Anthony Phelan (0-2), Padraig Murphy, David Blake; Austin Brennan, Brian Hickey, Daniel Ging. Subs: Jack Murray for Jamie Cullen, Damien Cullen (0-1) for Padraig Murphy. Brendan Barnes for Niall Gorman, Cian O’Neill for Daniel Ging.
REFEREE: Jason Smyth (Stratford-Grangecon)