Grange hold off Robertsown and big wins for Straffan and Kill in Kildare Junior Football Championship Group 1
Tom Cross Junior Football Championship Group 1, Round 4, Report by Tara Byrne
Grangenolvin 0-13
Roberstown 1-6
A consistent performance from Grange saw them weather a late rally from Robertstown to claim another victory in their Tom Cross Transport Junior Football Championship campaign.
A Fionn Bergin free opened their account early on before Robertstown hit back through points from Peter Hogarty and Diarmuid Healy. Determined not to let their recent run of victories come to an end Grange looked to Cillian Bergin to level matters before his brother Fionn edged Grange into the lead once more.
An exchange from Joe Kavanagh and Fionn Bergin kept Grange’s nose slightly ahead with six minutes of the opening half remaining.
Building on their early work Lee Doyle soon took this advantage to two before Fionn Bergin added his fourth of the half to ensure Grange led by three at the break.
Knowing that Robertstown would strike back Dylan Costigan looked to increase the advantage after the restart before Brion Kennedy and Healy sliced the Grange advantage to two, five minutes after the throw in.
Determined not to allow Robertstown to close the gap, Doyle again hit back.
Raising the white flag left three between the sides before Robertstown's Hogarty sent to the line after a black card was shown to him. With the numerical advantage in Grange’s favour they looked to take advantage with Oran Bergin restoring the four point difference but they were unable to build on this as Joe Kavanagh soon had the difference back to three.
With a single score separating the sides, Robertstown refused to give up and with fourteen minutes remaining they were rewarded as John O’Sullivan was left one-on-one with Timmy Doyle.
Going straight down the centre, O’Sullivan rose the green flag and the sides were level.
Despite this Grange were in no mood to watch victory slip from the grasp. Rallying they soon hit points from Brian Cullen and Lee Doyle to take them back into the lead before two late Fionn Bergin points rounded off a hard fought but deserved victory for the south Kildare side.
GRANGENOLVIN: Timmy Doyle; Paul Huntington, Tom Nolan, Gavin Ivory; Brian Cullen 0-1, Keith McGloin, Dylan Costigan 0-1; Oran Bergin 0-1 (1f), Cillian Bergin 0-1; David Lambe, Fionn Bergin 0-6 (4f), Thomas Cullen; Lee Doyle 0-3, Wayne Dooley, Conall Bergin. Subs: Jason Lambe for T Cullen (49 minutes).
ROBERTSTOWN: Richard Proce; Niall Kane, Anthony Moran, PJ Ewing; Craig O’Sullivan, Mark Kelly, James Keely; Shane Ward, Joe Kavanagh 0-2 (1f); Peter Hogarty 0-1, Brion Kennedy 0-1 (1f), Ben Buggy; Kevon Dowling, John O’Sullivan 1-0, Diarmuid Healy 0-2. Subs: Jason Butler for Dowling (50 minutes); James Carthy for Healy (53 minutes); , Dean Bagnall for Keely, (56 minutes); Brian Dowling for Buggy (60 minutes).
REFEREE: PJ Cummins
Tom Cross Junior Football Championship Group 1, Round 4, Report by Eoin Beatty
Straffan 3-16
Rathcoffey 0-11
Three second half goals, along with some fine point scoring was the difference on Friday evening as Straffan overcame their near-neighbours Rathcoffey in Tom Lawler Park, Raheens.
The opening exchanges were closely contested and a number of early points were exchanged with Michael O'Connor and Austin Allen proving to be the go-to men for either side.
Straffan led after 15 minutes on a scoreline of 0-4 to 0-2 and from here they kept their noses in front up until the half time whistle with Rob Kelly, John Tracey, Aaron Kiernan and the aforementioned Allen all getting on the scoresheet.
Rathcoffey looked dangerous themselves going forward and scored some excellent points before the break courtesy of O'Connor, Padraig McManamon and Adam Toman respectively.
Just four points separated the teams at the interval but any chances of a Rathcoffey comeback were effectively dashed within a matter of minutes of the restart. First, Rory Power pointed and then Aaron Kiernan got the game's first goal and suddenly it was 1-10 to 0-5 in favour of Straffan.
Michael O'Connor pulled a point back to try and stem the flow of the Straffan onslaught but they were beginning to hit an impressive purple patch. On 39 minutes Andy O'Neill buried the ball in the back of the net following good build up play from John Tracey and Rob Kelly. Five minutes later and O'Neill had the umpire reaching for the green flag again; this time he reacted quickest to a loose ball inside the square, sidestepped the keeper and finished into the empty net.
Straffan were now leading by 15 points with 15 minutes to play and in truth, the game more or less petered out as a contest. We did see a few more outstanding points from both teams however with Jason Acton and Cathal Travers hitting a couple of beauties for Rathcoffey and John Tracey and Rob Kelly showing their class for Straffan.
In the end, Straffan were full value for the win and proved why they gained promotion from Division 4 in the league and are a team to keep an eye on going forward in this year's championship.
STRAFFAN: Matthew Duggan; Mike Tracey, Niall Devane, Alan Byrne; Liam O'Donovan, Cian Gaynor, Rory Byrne; Tom O'Donovan, John Tracey 0-3; Andy O'Neill 2-0, Rory Power 0-2, Sean O'Connor; Aaron Kiernan 1-1, Austin Allen 0-6 3f, Rob Kelly 0-3. Subs: Brian Tracey 0-1 for Allen 45, Ed Neenan for Gaynor 45, Declan Reilly for Kiernan 53, Nathan O'Brien for Liam O'Donovan 53, Keith Donnelly for O'Neill 55.
RATHCOFFEY: Stephen Hayden; Evan Moriarty, Oisin Brilly, John Coyle; Conor Harris, Jamie Brilly, Cillian McGovern; Evin McGovern, Colum Fagan; Padraig McManamon 0-1, Michael O'Connor 0-4 1f, Mark Holligan; Adam Toman 0-1, Cathal Travers 0-1, Jason Acton 0-2 2f. Subs: PJ Heslin 0-1 for Oisin Brilly (inj) 27, Shane Dunne for O'Connor 44, Alex McGovern 0-1 1f for Toman 44, Ronan Coleman for Coyle 47, Cormac O'Sullivan for Acton 53.
REFEREE: Alan Archbold
Kill 4-16
Ballykelly 0-7
A strong performance from Kill along with three second half goals ensured that they would claim a significant victory over Ballykelly in the Tom Cross Transport Junior Football Championship.
Kill got off to the perfect start with points from Paul Kirwan and Gary Moran leaving them two points clear with three minutes played.
An Alan Wren goal followed by a point from Matthew Ryan soon had six points between the sides.
A point from Lee Moore from a placed ball opened the Ballykelly account before Kill seized control following a long ball in from Dara Chandler found Kirwan who converted a mark, added a second moments later before Wren took the advantage to eight.
With Kill claiming their advantage early on they began to ease off the pace and a series of traded scores maintained the difference until a Moran point a minute from time ensured that Kill would hold a healthy nine point advantage at the break.
Needing a strong start to the second half Ballykelly failed to ensured this materialised as Kirwan added to his tally moments after the throw in to take the different into double digits.
A further Wren point before two goals in five minutes from half time substitute Carl Lennox left Ballykelly with no further aspiration of making a comeback. A Kirwan brace ensured to underline this as Kill romped to a ninteen point advantage with ten minutes remaining in the tie.
A quick exchange from Padraig Cullen and Harry Kirwan did little to stop the rot as Moran took his personal tally to four points before Kirwan netted the evenings fourth goal of the game.
KILL: Jake Nolan; Jack Healy, Justin Halligan, Luke Purcell; Derry Lenehan, Kevin Corrigan, Matthew Ryan 0-1; Dara Chandler, Stephen Rowley; Stephen O’Leary, Brian Heveran, Eoin Finneran; Gary Moran 0-4 (2f), Alan Wren 1-2, Paul Kirwan 1-8 (4f). Subs: Carl Lennox 2-0 for Finneran, 30; Jamie Nolan for Rowley, 40; Chris McCarthy for Halligan, 44; Harry Kirwan 0-1 for Chandler, 50.
BALLYKELLY: Conor Murphy; Cole Grattan, Mick Behan, Simon Luttrell; Josh Lawler, Russell Grattan, Jack Smith; Kevin O’Donoghue, Owen Whelan; Ciaran Byrne, Eddie O’Connell, Dean Maher; Darryl Brereton, Padraig Cullen 0-2, Lee Moore 0-3 (3f). Subs: Liam Behan 0-1 for Moore, 48; Mikey Delahunty 0-1 for Maher, 50.
REFEREE: Fintan Barrett.