Blues off to a flying start
Blessington beat Avondale
NEITHER side will be losing their heads following this comfortable victory for reigning county champions Blessington over visiting Avondale in the opening round of the SFL Division 1 on Friday night.
Three goals in the opening half and some really positive play from Brian Cardiff’s side had them more or less out of sight at the break, leading Alan Costello’s side 3-5 to 0-2 on a bitterly cold night up on the Kildare border.
But the Blues will know that tougher tests await while the ’Dales will be looking at the bigger picture, using the Division 1 league as a serious testing ground against the top sides in the county ahead of the dogfight that is the D’Arcy Sand Intermediate football championship campaign later in the year.
Plenty of tidying up for Blessington as well, with some very poor shot options taken in the second half and a wide tally in double digits potentially fatal in games against some of the big guns.
They’ll be very impressed with their opening half to say the least, and to be fair, Avondale can reflect on a very competitive opening quarter before the concession of the second and third majors deflated their ambitions somewhat.
Blessington had a wealth of resources both on the sideline and away on county duty which makes the 3-11 against a relatively sturdy Avondale defence look all the more impressive. No McLoughlins on show here, no Kevin Quinn or Craig Maguire to name a few.
The ’Dales will be strengthened considerably with the return of Zach Cullen and Oisin McGraynor and, hopefully, Conor Byrne at some later stage in the season.
An early scare in front of the Blessington goals passed with referee Diarmuid Haughian ignoring calls from the Avondale players that a shot from Padraig Geoghegan crossed Rob Gilligan’s line after three minutes.
Eoin Keogh intercepted Brian Burke’s restart befoe firing over the opening score of the game and this was answered by a sweet point from debutant Mark O’Reilly for Avondale. The young corner-forward looks like he has all the ingredients to enjoy a very healthy career at the top level.
Blessington’s opening goal was somewhat fortuitous. The excellent Curtis Geraghty watched as his shot took a slight deflection before ending up in the back of the Avondale net.
Eoin Baker was catching the eye at centre-back for the visitors, as was Saoirse Kearon in the middle of the field.
Sean McGraynor fired over a free after 10 but Alan Costello’s men dropped the first of several efforts into the welcome arms of Rob Gilligan soon after.
As stated earlier, the opening quarter was very competitive, Dean Gahan, Shane Byrne, Michael O’Dea, Cormac McGraynor and Shane Beevor working hard for the visitors while Jack Gilligan, Dan Cooney, Eoin Keogh and Jordan McGarr were shining for the Blues and feeding a very mobile and constantly fluctuating inside line of Mikey O’Connor, Dan Silke Fetherston and Curtis Geraghty.
A moment of cheeky magic from Mikey O’Connor ended with Blessington’s second goal. The move started with a short Blessington kick-out and ended with the corner-forward chipping nonchalantly over Brian Burke and into the Avondale net with 17 gone.
Points from O’Connor and Silke Fetherston followed before Curtis Geraghty finished home soccer style to kill the game as a competitive fixture with four minutes left in the opening half.
Avondale made three changes at the break, sending Eugene Dunne into the defence and the veteran certainly added bite and energy to the fray while Anthony Byrne and Donal McGraynor added plenty as well, McGraynor kicking three fantastic scores over the course of the second half.
Blessington opened the scoring in the second half, a stunning ball from Eoin Keogh picking out Geraghty and the mature attacker splitting the posts with aplomb.
The Blues would ring the changes as well, and all bringing plenty to the party, Aaron Keogh really catching the eye just up from Minor, Adam Smyth lively, Ruairi Finan electric and David Williamson and Conor Richardson impressing.
With Steven Bohan, James Dooley and Cillian Bailey lording it in the full-back line and Jack Gilligan looking like a natural born leader at centre-back, it was a case of Blessington in cruise control for the remainder of the half, Aaron Keogh’s superb point after 27 minutes bringing the biggest cheer of the night.
A decent start for Brian Cardiff’s men, but that’s all it is: a start.
lan Costello and Avondale will find the positives from this game, and there were many.
Not easy to go to the home patch of the defending Miley Cup champions on a bitterly cold night in February.
They’ll have better days ahead, no doubt.