Emo cruise to opening round victory over Rosenallis in Laois Shopping Centre SFC

Emo began their Senior Football Championship campaign with an extremely dominant win over Rosenallis in O’Moore Park on Saturday evening in the opener of the triple header. 

After a scoreless opening quarter to the game as Rosenallis frustrated Emo, Pat Ryan’s charges eventually broke them down and took a 2-5 to 0-1 lead before half time. 

EMO 4-10 

ROSENALLIS 1-5 

Darren Strong kicked 1-2 in the opening half and was very dominant up front, whilst Tom Fennelly and Sean Greene were extremely effective in cutting out Rosenallis attacks and moving the ball forward. 

The second half was slightly closer, although lacked any real competitiveness as Emo had the game under control throughout, despite Rosenallis looking slightly more potent up front. 

A couple of goals late in the game put the icing on the cake for an impressively well drilled Emo outfit. 

After an extremely slow start to the game Emo finally opened the scoring with a Darren Strong point on 13 minutes from distance, using the wind to his advantage. 

Rosenallis got their first on the board two minutes later when Fiachra C Fennell handed the ball inside to Eoin Dunne who pointed from close range. 

Emo dominated the possession throughout the half, but struggled to break down a resilient Rosenallis defence early on and kicked numerous wides. Davy Costello scored his first Senior Championship point on 21 minutes from a free and added another minutes later. 

The game began to open up towards the end of the half as Emo started to pick their way through the lines of green jerseys and they got their first goal when Tom Fennelly intercepted a kickout and passed to Nigel Murphy who buried it straight down the middle. 

They didn’t have to wait long for their second goal when a Costello free dropped short but Strong was on hand to fist it into the net. 

Strong brought his first half tally to 1-2 when he contested well to win a high ball for a mark and kicked it over the bar from 30 metres. 

Emo were attacking in swathes late in the half and Sean Greene kicked the final score before the break off his left three minutes into injury time and Emo led 2-5 to 0-1. 

Rosenallis began the second half strongly with a couple of dangerous attacks before they eventually broke through for a goal with some fine interplay between Fiachra C Fennell and Charlie Friel, with the latter passing inside to Brian Fitzpatrick who finished neatly. 

Emo regained their composure and went back on the attack kicking the next three points in a row. Brian Gorman got the first of the trio after Rosenallis blocked a couple of goal attempts and Costello added the next from a free before Strong kicked the third from play. 

Rosenallis got their second point of the game on 44 minutes from a Charlie Friel free, but their early potency from the beginning of the half started to wane. Darren Strong and Jimmy Hyland traded points before Emo began to really turn the screw in the final 10 minutes. 

Strong made a powerful run through the middle of the field and handed off to Costello who played the ball across the goals towards Jack Owens and he fisted into the net for Emo’s third goal. 

Nigel Murphy added a point soon after and Rosenallis struck two frees late in the day but Padraig Kirwan put the finishing touch on a dominant Emo performance with a fisted goal in injury time.