St Joseph's withstand Crettyard comeback to claim Round 1 win

St Joseph’s are up and running in the Laois Shopping Centre SFC after overcoming Crettyard by four-points in an entertaining affair in Stradbally on Thursday night.

Brian Cardiff’s side had to withstand a second half comeback from Crettyard inspired by Evan O’Carroll, but they did enough to get over the line.

O’Carroll got the scoring underway in the game with a brilliant point from play, but from that point on St Joseph’s dominated the first half.

The St Joseph’s response was a good one, with Darragh Farrell drawing the sides level and his side kicked on after that.

They went ahead with a Brian Daly two-pointer, which was followed up by Eoin Johnson and a point from the man of the match Robbie Murphy as they led 0-5 to 0-1 after five minutes.

O’Carroll added another point from a free, but the Joseph’s defence were handling the Crettyard attack superbly. Robbie Murphy then came to the fore as he won a lot of possession from kickouts and would also kick the next two points from play.

Ciaran Burke then responded with a lovely point from play to reduce the gap to three 0-7 to 0-4. There was no let up from St Joseph’s as they kicked on again with two lovely scores from Eoghan O’Flaherty to put his team in control again.

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Cormac Murphy hit another point as the half was heading for a close, but then disaster struck for Crettyard as St Joseph’s scored a goal.

After Eoin Johnson turned over the ball and beat two defenders, he passed it across the square to find O’Flaherty, who palmed it into the back of the net.

Crettyard got the last score of the half from Jack Doyle with the score at 1-9 to 0-6 in favour of St Joseph’s.

Evan O’Carroll and Mikey Keogh traded points at the start of the second half, before Crettyard hit a purple patch which brought them right back into the game.

It was all about O’Carroll for the next five minutes. After a quiet half he then kicked four brilliant points in a row to reduce the gap to two points and it was now game on.

St Joseph’s got a badly needed free from Eoin Johnson to halt Crettyard’s momentum, but they were still winning a lot of ball and would hit the next score through Dara Kelly.

Brian Daly and Johnson then settled St Joseph’s once more, and they had the upper hand once again in this contest. O’Carroll then nailed a 45 to keep his side in touch, but when they seemed to get near, St Joseph’s would respond.

This time Johnson nailed a free along with a point from play from Mikey Keogh as now the gap was five with about eight minutes to play.

Crettyard weren’t going away though as Cormac Murphy hit a brilliant two-pointer to reduce the gap to three points again. The brilliant Robbie Murphy then hit his own two-pointer, and it looked like that was going to be enough for St Joseph’s to get over the line.

There was still time for a twist though as Evan O’Carroll scored a screamer of a goal into the top corner of the net to put two points between the teams in injury time.

Brian Daly and Robbie Murphy kicked another two scores as St Joseph’s recorded an opening round win in Stradbally.

FINAL SCORE

St Joseph’s 1-19

Crettyard 1-15

SCORERS: St Joseph’s: Robbie Murphy 0-6 (one two1pointer), Eoghan O’Flaherty 1-2, Brian Daly (one two-pointer) and Eoin Johnson (0-2 frees) 0-4 each, Mikey Keogh 0-2, Darragh Farrell, 0-1 Crettyard: Evan O’Carroll 1-8 (0-3 frees, 0-1 45), Cormac Murphy 0-3 (one two-pointer), Ciaran Burke 0-2 (two-pointer), Jack Doyle and Dara Kelly 0-1 each.

ST JOSEPH’S Aaron Cooney; Ciaran Condron, Adam Campion, Niall Brennan; Jack Lacey, Danny Hickey, Sean Brennan; Mikie Dempsey, Brian Daly; Eoin Johnson, Michael Keogh, Robbie Murphy; Oisin Hooney, Darragh Farrell, Eoghan O’Flaherty. Subs: Josh Lacey for S Brennan (HT), Dylan Doyle for Farrell (46 mins), Gearoid Lynch for Hooney (57 mins)

CRETTYARD: Eoin O’Shea; Cormac Brennan, Pierce Nash, Fionn O’Sullivan; Dara Kelly, John Brennan, Jack Doyle; Patrick O’Reilly, Alex Whelan; Conor Mulhall, Jonah Kelly, Sean Browne; Cormac Murphy, Ciaran Burke, Evan O’Carroll. Subs: Podge Lawlor for Mulhall (HT), Brian Brennan for Browne (45 mins), Tiernan Patterson for D Kelly (63 mins)

Referee: Colin Bailey (Mountrath)