Better late than never for Mattock

Mattock Rangers St Mochta’s 3-11 1-9

MATTOCK Rangers belatedly joined Naomh Fionnbarra, Clan na Gael and the O’Connells in the semi-finals of the Intermediate championship after a hard-fought victory over St Mochtas in Tallanstown on Saturday evening.

Mattock had looked the more likely team to progress after dominating the early exchanges in the second half to pull six points clear. However, the Louth Village side driven on by the tireless Declan Byrne reduced the deficit to just two points as the game entered the final ten minutes.

John Kennedy’s side managed to close the game out, however, and finished strongly to record a slightly flattering eight-point victory.

Ciaran Marks’ St. Mochtas team had endured a difficult build up to this quarter-final clash following the passing of club legend Kenneth Meegan a week previously but they showed they were up for the fight in the early exchanges with both Shane and Darren McMahon winning their fair share of the ball in the middle of the park in the opening exchanges. It was Mattock Rangers however who struck the first meaningful blow of the game as livewire James Caragher volleyed the ball into the back of the net after good work from Adrian Reid in the buildup. Caragher added two further points to leave the Collon side five points clear midway through the opening half.

Eamon O’Neil’s excellent longrange point seemed to lift the Mochtas and they proceeded to dominate the remainder of the half with Barry Mulholland and Gareth O’Reilly bombing forward from defence to support their forwards. Gerry Garland, making his full championship debut for St Mochtas was beginning to cause the Mattock defence problems in the corner and it was his wonderful through ball which set Stephen McCooey clear with the young forward making no mistake as he placed the ball into the bottom corner to make it a one-point game. Mattock did manage to have the final say of the first half as corner forward Aaron O’Brien sent over an excellent score to make it 1-5 to 1-3 to the Collon men at the break.

Within seconds of the restart the Mochtas defence were caught napping as Michael McKeown found Aaron O’Brien who in turn found the bottom of the net to give Mattock the ideal start to the second half. O’Brien, playing in dazzling red boots, was well and truly in the mood now and he followed up his goal with a sumptuous point from play to send Mattock six points clear and seemingly heading for the semi-finals.

Points from Shane McMahon and Andrew English narrowed the gap to four points before Declan Byrne took centre stage with two excellent long-range scores, the second of which elicited a fist pump from the Inter-County player as the men in blue and yellow started to believe that this could be their night.

However, the introduction of JP Watters proved to be a masterstroke by John Kennedy as the Mattock sub scored a point before setting up David Reid for a crucial third goal which got the Collon men back on track. That goal visibly knocked the stuffing out of St. Mochtas and it was Mattock Rangers who closed out the game in style with further points from O’Brien and David Reid to claim their place in the last four. MATTOCK RANGERS: Mike Englishby; Shane Maguire, Ciaran Calvey, Sean Gilsenan; Brendan Leacy, Daire Englishby, Michael McKeown, Conor Lenehan, Ryan Lenehan; Terry Donegan 0-1, Adrian Reid 0-1, James Carragher 1-2; Alan Carragher, David Reid 1-2, Aaron O’Brien 1-4. Subs: Ben Markey for Leacy, Hugh Donnelly for Conor Lenehan, JP Watters 0-1 for Donegan, Greg Monaghan for O’Brien, Cillian Hickey for James Caraher

ST MOCHTAS: St Mochtas: Fergus English; Liam Lawlor, Andrew English 0-1, Cormac Callan; Gareth O’Reilly, Gary Connolly, Barry Mulholland; Shane McMahon 0-1, Darren McMahon; Liam McGranaghan 0-1, Philip Englishby, Stephen McCooey 1-0; Gerry Garland 0-1, Declan Byrne 0-5 (2f), Eamon O’NeilSubs: Ultan Larney for Cormac Callan, Nigel Farrell for Liam McGranaghan, Gavin Breen for Eamon O’Neill, Emlyn Clerkin for Gareth O’Reilly, Martin McGahon for Philip Englishby.