Éire Óg continue good start to Championship with win over reigning champions
Old Leighlin’s Aaron Amond tries to shrug off the attentions of Éire Og’s Kyle O’Byrne Photo: Michael O’Rourke
A lively Éire Óg put the reigning champions to the sword with relative ease in this senior football championship third round game on Saturday.
There was little between the sides in the first half but Éire Óg made the better use of their possession. Adam McCarron picked off two points from placed balls (a free and a 45) with Seamus Kinsella on the mark for Old Leighlin from a free.
The key moment of the half came on 13 minutes when Chris Blake delivered a ball in and with Ross Dunphy getting a touch, Darragh O’Brien guided the ball to the empty net.
Cathal Coughlan scored two frees for Old Leighlin but points from Diarmuid Ruth and McCarron (free for a breach) saw the YIs lead 1-7 to 0-4 at the interval.
In hindsight the two points from Éire Óg through McCarron and Colm Hulton immediately after the restart all but put the eventual winners out of sight. Kinsella did tack on another free and Aaron Amond fired over a two-pointer but nothing they did on the night could inspire Old Leighlin. With ten minutes to go, James Dowling scored two Old Leighlin points in quick succession but Blake’s 45 as the game went into injury time ushered out a game which never caught fire.
D O’Brien 1-2, A McCarron (2fs 45) 0-5, C Blake 0-3 (1-45), D Ruth, R Dunphy, B Kavanagh, C Hulton 0-1 each Old Leighlin: J Dowling 0-3, A Amond (1-2p), C Coughlan (1f), S Kinsella (2fs) 0-2 each.
Johnny Furey; Lee Moore, Mark Behan, Fiach O’Toole; Alex Delaney, Adam Nolan, Kyle Nolan; Kyle O’Byrne, Eoghan Ruth; Adam McCarron, Darragh O’Brien, Mark Furey; Diarmuid Ruth, Chris Blake, Ross Dunphy. Subs: Sean Gannon for D Ruth (h/t), Colm Hulton for Dunphy (h/t), Benny Kavanagh for Gannon (42), Niall Quinlan for McCarron (47), Kieran Nolan for O’Byrne (53).
Steven Scallan; Kevin Carpenter, Tadhg O’Neill, Daniel Brennan; Tadhg Roche, Jordan Kelly, Jamie Doyle; Ian Atkinson, David Bambrick; James Dowling, Mikey Bambrick, Aaron Amond; Cathal Coughlan, Seamus Kinsella, Darragh Fitzgerald. Subs: Ben Stanley for Dowling (23 temporary), Jack Connolly for Kinsella (41), Ben Stanley for D Bambrick (51).
James Foley (Kilbride)
