SFC GROUP 2
Rathvilly 3-15 Tinryland 2-6
IT may seem strange to open up a match report with the reaction of a losing team who were on the receiving end of a whopping 12-point defeat.
Tinryland came into this match with high expectations and had built what they considered to be a team who could compete for championship honours. The groundwork had been done, last season had seen steady progress and now it was time to press the start button.
They pressed the start button alright but apart from a brief spell early on they were comprehensively outclassed.
Manager Ger Bickerstaff emerged from a stunned dressing room afterwards and could only mumble a few brief words. Eamonn Byrne coped better. The long-serving mentor didn’t mince his words.
“We were played off the park. We are shell shocked and it was a serious reality check for us. We were played off the park in every position,” he said.
“We didn’t play well but that was a stunning performance. In my opinion it was a very good Rathvilly performance and if there is a better senior team in the county at the moment then shows them to me.”
He admitted that it was a humbling experience for the players.
“We beat them in the league and that just goes to show that the league means nothing.”
Questioning whether the team would be able to move on after experiencing such a traumatic reverse, he queried: “It is a quiet dressing room. We are shell shocked.
“It is back to the drawing board and we have to pick ourselves up. We have Kildavin-Clonegal next Friday night. A serious reality check. I can say no more.”
It looked good for the challengers when Paul Broderick found the net from close range in the ninth minute to cancel out points from Rathvilly’s Alan Kelly and Brian Murphy but the eventual winners just shrugged this concession aside.
Daniel O’Brien took a pass from JJ Smith to score a fine goal in the 19th minute. It gave his side a fourpoint lead and they just moved up a gear from there. Two points a piece from Smith and Brian Murphy increased the gap while John Kehoe came forward from his centrehalf back position to land another point to ensure his side went to the interval 2-9 to 1-2 ahead.
JJ Smith hit the second goal when he took a pass from Ed Finnegan to easily beat the helpless Trevor O’Reilly in the Tinryland goal.
The Wicklow border side never let up in the second half and when it was suggested to manager Mick Sibbald that the Éire Óg spies who watched from the stand could not have been but impressed he was modest.
“We are trying to win every match we can. Take one at a time. It is Fenagh next week,” he said. “They have won their match and our objective is to qualify. We played very well and even when Tinryland got the goal we settled down and got our own goal. Our movement was very good and we threw the ball around well.”
The second half was as easy as the score line suggests. Murphy and Smith hit further points while Cormac Walsh ploughed a lone furrow up front.
Scores were hard to come by in the third quarter with some of the Rathvilly players guilty of some careless shooting from close in. Mind you credit to the likes of Peter Doran, Brian Foster and Shane Redmond who continued to pressurise the attack but the green clad men always seemed to have a player in hand.
Rathvilly had the luxury of introducing all their substitutes in the final quarter and took off Sean Kavanagh who had given his all as he rampaged up and down the pitch.
Both the wing backs were replaced but it was merely experimentation for the battles that lie ahead. Sibbald feels that his side now has strength in depth.
“We used five subs and that is a big plus for us. We have extra lads in Kevin Byrne, the Bolgers and it gives us great options and these could be on the team. You need 25 on a panel if you are going to win a championship and that is the way it goes.”
Certainly weaknesses were not apparent on the night. Cormac Walsh had the game’s final score when he rattled the net in the 58th minute. Sibbald used the concession of the goals to try to keep his team grounded.
“We let in two soft goals and they could have got another at the end,” he said. He was only playing mind games at that stage and the former inter-county footballer knew it himself.
Rathvilly: Danny Kehoe; Shane Kehoe, Brian Leonard, Geoffrey Donoghue; Andrew Bolger, John Kehoe (�-�), Tony Bolger; Ken Doyle (��), Sean Kavanagh; Brian Murphy (�-�, �f), Daniel O’Brien (��), Ed Finnegan; Alan Kelly (�-�), JJ Smith (�-�, �f), Gary Dempsey (�-�). Subs: Danny Molloy for Finnegan (��mins), David Nolan for Dempsey (��mins), John Bolger for T Bolger (��mins), Kevin Byrne for A Bolger (��mins), Patrick Byrne for Kavanagh (��mins).
Tinryland: Trevor O’Reilly; Peter Doran, Mark Dempsey, Chris Cleary; Brian Foster, Evan Doyle, Paul Doyle; Shane Redmond (�-�), Ian Scully (�-�); Niall Barrett, Willie Power, Glen Doyle; Paul Broderick (�-�fs), Cian Moore, Cormac Walsh (�-�, �f). Subs: Shane O’Neill for P Doyle (HT), Matthew O’Neill for Barrett (��mins), Gary Morrissey for Moore (��mins).
Ref: Pat Ahern (O’Hanrahan’s)