Round-up of all the club GAA action
Forde in fine form with 2-3
KILANERIN 2-11 ST. MARTIN’S 0-9
WHILE there is plenty of football to be played yet, Kilanerin blew the Tom Doyle Supplies Senior Football Championship chase wide open with a straightforward 2-11 to 0-9 victory over a casual St. Martin’s outfit in Saturday evening’s fourth round tie played at Bellefield.
With three wins and a draw from four outings, the north county men appear well capable of emulating the recent trend of the Intermediate champions contending for Senior honours a year later, but they didn’t have to expend too much energy against a side who had already booked their ticket to the quarter-finals.
St. Martin’s were poles apart from their professional dismantling of Castletown a week earlier, with only one of their starting forwards registering from play and their usual aggression noticeably absent.
But a more immediate concern for the losers may be the injury sustained to mountainous midfielder Daithí Waters, who hobbled off with his right ankle wrapped in ice at the start of the fourth quarter. Goals in either half from Wexford legend Matty Forde were the catalyst to Kilanerin’s victory, although he endured a frustrating start to the game as a couple of off-the-ball encounters with his marker Willie Devereux resulted in Forde picking up a yellow card on eleven minutes.
The returning Jake Firman had skipped out of trouble before pointing an excellent score for St.Martin’s as the sides were deadlocked at 0-1 each before that flash-point, but a one-handed catch from Forde teed up Paudie Hughes for a point, while his nephew Sean Forde and Peter Hughes added further scores to make it 0-4 to 0-2 by the nineteenth minute.
Matty then saw his shot on the turn after 22 minutes wallop off the crossbar, but he was fouled in the process and subsequently sent Luke White the wrong way from the penalty that followed.
Tom Hughes squandered possession from an excursion up the field for Ciaran Lyng to pick off a point, but efforts from play from Peter and Paudie Hughes and Dean O’Toole made sure that Kilanerin sat comfortably in front by 1-8 to 0-5 at the break.
A peculiar moment arrived on forty minutes when Ben Maddock eventually pointed after everyone had stopped thinking that a free had been awarded to St.Martin’s.
That had brought the Piercestown/Murrintown men to within 1-9 to 0-7, but a flowing counter-attack featuring Ben O’Connor, Sean Forde and Pauric Hughes saw Matty Forde lurk to the left of the square before goaling with ease to essentially seal the points and top spot in Group A.
Kilanerin: Tom Hughes; Rhys Owley, Colm Kavanagh (capt), Aidan Jones; Ben O’Connor, Gavin O’Toole, Denis Jones; Sean Forde (0-1), Niall Breen; Mark Boland, Dean O’Toole (0-2), Pauric Hughes (0-2); Conor Devitt (0-1), Matty Forde (2-3, 1-0 penalty, three frees), Peter Hughes (0-2). Subs: Mark Gethings for Peter Hughes (40), Emmet O’Toole for Sean Forde (48), Bobby Hughes for Boland (53), Tommy Boland for Pauric Hughes (55).
St.Martin’s: Luke White; Philip Dempsey, Willie Devereux, Adam Cantwell; Jake Firman (0-3), Paidi Kelly, Patrick O’Connor; Daithi Waters (capt), Ben Maddock (0-1); Barry O’Connor (03, two frees, one ‘45), Ciaran Lyng (0-2, one free), Jack Devereux; Kyle Firman, Peter Barry, Diarmuid Barry. Subs: Jamie Carthy for Jack Devereux (HT), Ryan Murphy for Barry (44), Sam Audsley for Waters (46, inj).
Referee: Barry Redmond (Clonard).