Glyde and Roche serve up cracker

Glyde Rangers Roche Emmets 4-7 3-10

ON a cold evening in Tallanstown, Glyde and Roche served up a cracker to warm the spectators, with honours even at the final whistle.

At a pace more akin to July championship fare, the two sides went toe-to-toe, with Roche’s corner forward Barry O’Hare showing he had ice in his veins to convert a 35-metre free with the last kick of the game to level the match.

Glyde will probably be the more upset with the result as they dominated midfield through David Devaney and Ciaran Sheridan, but some wayward shooting cost them the game.

It took five minutes before the first score came from the foot of Trevor O’Brien after Glyde had kicked five wides. Roche, however, scored their first goal four minutes later through Kevin Callaghan following a blistering run. O’Hare added a second three minutes later following a mix-up in the Glyde defence.

The home side stuck to their task and their dominance in the possession stakes gave them their own two-goal blitz in the 23rd and 24th minutes from O’Brien and Aaron Devlin.

O’Brien added his second and Glyde’s third just before half-time, latching on to a sweet long pass from Conor Sheridan to leave Glyde ahead by 3-5 to 2-4 at half-time.

Scores were hard to come by in the second half as the tackling and the intensity reached fever pitch from both teams.

Roche were however picking off their scores from what limited attacks they had, and with O’Hare and Callaghan both pitching in with frees they hauled back Glyde.

Roche attacker Enda Murphy was handed a black card for a rash challenge on Conor Sheridan, but despite losing their talented playmaker they continued to build and Niall McArdle found the net to put Roche ahead by two points. Every challenge was now a massive contest, but Roche’s cause was not helped when sub Ciaran Savage was dismissed.

Glyde finally found some space and when Conor Sheridan was dragged down in the square Ciaran Sheridan stepped up to convert the penalty and put Glyde ahead by two points with five minutes left.

Glyde tried to finish off the game but were constantly thwarted by a solid Roche defence led by Harry O’Connell, and in the end it came down to two converted frees from O’Hare to level the game.

There were some fine displays on both sides, with Glyde’s Niall Sharkey and Mark O’Brien and Roche’s Robert Mackin and Cathal Byrne impressing. ST KEVIN’S got their Divsion 3 campaign off to the best possible start when they recorded a 12-point win over John Mitchel’s at Philipstown on Saturday evening.

The reigning Junior champions are among the favourites for the Division 3 title this year and they turned in an impressive display to secure both points.

It was the visitors who got off to the better start and their bright opening was rewarded when they built up a 0-4 to 0-2 lead inside the first quarter.

However, the Kevin’s stepped up a gear and a goal from Darren McMullen helped them to take a 1-8 to 0-4 lead by the 20th minute. And with Lee Crosbie kicking some nice points, they increased the advantage at the break to 1-11 to 0-6.

The Mitchel’s needed a good start to the second half to give themselves any hope of rescuing the game, but it wasn’t to be as a goal from Paul Duff straight from the restart saw them fall 11 points behind.

The result was never in doubt after that score, but the Mitchel’s continued to battle until the end and gained some consolation through a Mikey Nulty goal.

The Kevin’s sealed victory when Lee Crosbie fired in a third goal to bring his personal tally to 1-6 for the night.