Glen stroll for Cooley
A DOWDALLSHILL double-header on the same championship card as neighbours St Patrick’s sounds like business as usual for Cooley Kickhams, but the former giants of Louth football found themselves in the very unfamiliar surroundings of the Intermediate grade on Sunday, facing 2017 Junior champions Glen Emmets.
But if the green and gold faithful made the short hop in from the peninsula with a degree of caution, they need not have worried, as Adrian Sheelan’s troops steamrolled over the Tullyallen men with a devastating first-half display.
Granted, it was more business-like than vintage from Kickhams, and it probably didn’t tell us much more than we already knew: Cooley are genuine Seamus Flood contenders, while consolidation will be Emmets’ primary target this summer.
Whether the Glens can turn over their neighbours Oliver Plunketts next time out remains to be seen, but they never threatened an upset in this one-sided affair, falling 1-11 to no score behind before opening their account with a goal in the 28th minute.
They gave a better account of themselves once their opponents inevitably eased off the throttle after the break, and a late salvo of a goal and four points could yet prove crucial should their derby date with the Plunketts end in a draw.
On the evidence of this display the Plunketts will do well to contain Cooley this weekend.
With Richie Brennan and Ferghal Malone dominant at midfield and Emmett Rogan and Ciaran Sheelan menacing in at-
tack, they were simply too hot for Emmets to handle.
It took a wee while for their dominance to translate to the scoreboard, however. It took them the guts of 15 minutes to open a three-point lead through Brian White, Emmet Rogan and Aoghan McGuinness, but once Michael Rafferty teed up the lively Rogan for a well-worked goal, it already looked like game, set and match.
A mere 10 minutes later they were 1-11 to no score clear and with a nice spread of scorers too as Ciaran Sheelan, Rafferty, Fearghal Malone and defenders James O’Reilly and Eoin McDaid found their range.
Emmets Junior final goal hero Ian Cusack netted their opening score in the 28th minute, leaving 12 between them at the break, 1-12 to 1-0.
The second-half was both pedestrian and predictable as Cooley quite contentedly saw the game out and both sides had racked up six points apiece by the end of normal-time.
But perhaps conscious of how important score difference can be, Emmets kept plugging away and were rewarded with 1-1 in injurywith goal specialist Cusack again popping up with the major. COOLEY KICKHAMS: Neil Gallagher; Dean McGreehan, Darren Marks, James O’Reilly 0-1; Eoin McDaid 0-1, Conor McGuinness, Gerry Malone; Richard Brennan 0-1, Fearghal Malone 0-2; Emmet Rogan 1-4 (1f), Peter Thornton 0-1, Michae Rafferty 0-1; Aoghan McGuinness, Brian White 0-1f, Ciaran Sheelan 0-5. Subs: Keith White for F Malone, Conor Kenny for C McGuinness, Alan Page for G Malone, Jake McShane for E Rogan.
GLEN EMMETS: Conor Kelly; Evan English, Tom Grimes, Keith Boylan; Jamie Farnan, Andrew Mooney, Jamie Gilkes 0-1; Sean Byrne, Mark Garvey; Ian Cusack 2-0, Isaac Walsh, Keelan O’Neill; Stephen Healy, Ronan Grufferty 0-3 (1f), James Butler 0-2. Subs: Robert Byrne for S Byrne (black card), David Bracken for E English, Keith Farnan for I Walsh, Sam Kenny 0-1 for J Farnan.
REFEREE: David J McArdle.