Dillon hat-trick delights boss Hanna
Tummery Athletic 3 Strathroy Harps 1
Paudi Dillon netted a hat-trick on his first senior start as Tummery Athletic maintained their perfect start to the season with a 4-1 victory over Strathroy Harps.
The teenager had scored twice the night before as the Under 17 team won the Brendan Keogh Cup, and manager Ryan Hanna was delighted with how he coped with the step up to the first team.
“Paudi is an outrageous talent,” he said. “To score a hat-trick on your first senior start is special. Nothing fazes him and he has plenty more of that to give.
“We had a couple of under 17s on the bench again, so it’s great to see that our youth is thriving and coming through. If you are good enough you are old enough, and Paudi proved that on Saturday.”
Strathroy had not tasted defeat in the league prior to Saturday and they made the perfect start when they took the lead inside two minutes, but Hanna felt his side recovered well and deserved their win.
“We started poorly,” he conceded. “You could see we hadn’t a competitive game for a few weeks and Strathroy were very good for the first 15 minutes, but once we settled we deservedly got an equaliser and we were very good in the second half. The score line reflects the game.”
Harps’ early strike from Simon O’neill threatened to derail the reigning champions’ 100 per cent start to the season, but they levelled the scores midway through the first half when Aidy Mccaffrey released Kyle Mccrory, who unselfishly squared the ball for Dillon to roll in his first of the afternoon.
On the half hour mark Harps came within inches of restoring their lead when Tommy Murphy had an effort superbly saved by Niall Mccrory, with Murphy then crashing the rebound off the top of the crossbar.
Mccaffrey had an effort cleared off the line and Dillon had a shot saved as Tummery pressed for a goal that would give them the lead for the first time, and their second finally arrived after 53 minutes when Dillon converted Mccrory’s pass.
A spectacular 40 strike from Marty Hughes extended their lead, and although the home team were reduced to ten men when centre half Oisin Gormley received a second yellow card, Harps were unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage and Dillon completed his hat-trick on 65 minutes with a strike from the edge of the penalty area into the corner of the net.