Classy O’Connell’s bring St Kevin’s down to earth
O’CONNELL’S advanced to the semi-finals of the Intermediate Championship thanks to a ninepoint victory over St Kevin’s in Dunleer on Saturday evening.
The Kevin’s came into the game with confidence high in the camp after securing their place in the knockout stages at the first time of asking, having been playing at junior level for the past decade.
However, the O’Connell’s proved too hot to handle for the Philipstown side, with Robert Quigley in particular causing the Kevin’s defence all sorts of problems.
Paul Duff opened the scoring for the Philipstown men with a point after three minutes, but O’Connell’s replied with the next two from Stuart Osborne and Niall Conlon.
Aidan Craven pointed to level the game after seven minutes, but that would be his team’s last score of the half as the O’Connell’s went on to build a commanding lead.
Corner forward Robert Quigley was seeing plenty of the ball mid-way through the half and he scored two frees to double the Castlebellingham’s side lead. Full forward Niall Conlon was soon up and running with a couple of fine scores also to make it 0-6-to 0-2 after 20 minutes.
St Kevin’s were guilty of some wayward shooting and a sliced shot from Cian Callan summed up their opening half as it drifted well wide of the target.
O’Connell’s were well on top now and they finished the half strongly with points from Connolly, Conlon and Quigley to put the men from Castlebellingham 0-10 to 0-2 ahead at the break.
The excellent Niall Conlon made it a nine-point game early in the second half, putting the ball over the bar after the Kevin’s keeper did well to prevent a goal.
To the Kevin’s credit they didn’t lie down and indeed dominated the next 15 minutes, out-scoring the O’Connell’s by five points as Cian Callan and Seanie Crosbie scored a couple of points apiece to give the Philipstown outfit a glimmer of hope.
An excellent ‘45 from Crosbie made it a four-point game, and with the O’Connell’s not having scored for 17 minutes it looked as if there could be a thrilling finale in store for the big crowd in Dunleer.
However, the O’Connell’s extinguished any hopes of a famous comeback as a well-worked move saw Jackie Agnew pass the ball to Paul McKeever who in turn found Quigley. Fittingly, the man of the match made no mistake as he side-stepped his marker before finding the back of the net.
Further points from Conlon, Quigley and McKeever sealed victory for O’Connell’s - a result that puts them in the last four of this competition.
O’CONNELL’S: Stuart Reynolds; Jason Carroll, Michael Cairns, James Clerkin; Conor Culligan, Salem Rifaie, Keith Woods; Dean Stanfield 0-1, Ciarán O’Brien; Emmet Byrne, Sean Connolly 0-1, Stuart Osbourne 0-1; Robert Quigley 1-4 (0-3f), Niall Conlon 0-7 (3f), Jackie Agnew. Subs: Conor McGill for Sean Connolly, Paul McKeever 0-1 for Conor Culligan. ST KEVIN’S: Conor Callan; Barry Byrne, Conor McCullough, Enda McKenna; Dylan Maher, Thomas Gregory, Liam Boylan; Andrew Campbell, Lee Crosbie; Paul Duff 0-2, Aidan Craven, Aaron Roche; Seanie Crosbie 0-3, Karl Martin 0-1, Cian Callan 0-3. Subs: Patrick Clarke for Aidan Craven, Patrick Duff for Barry Byrne, Aaron Khan for Aaron Roche, Darren McMullen for Paul Duff.