Éire Óg get the better of Bagenalstown Gaels in stormy Senior Championship opener
Paddy McDonald dives to block Ross Dunphy's shot on the Bagenalstown Gaels' goal.
There can be no doubt about endeavour and commitment. Whether that will be enough to see one of these sides lift the Carlow Senior Football Championship Nationalist Cup on October 18th is certainly open to question. One thing for sure though, they will be stern opposition for other sides along the way.
Bagenalstown Gaels posed early questions of their opposition as Paddy McDonnell, Robbie Kane (2), Oisin Dillon and Cian Doyle all raised white flags. Ross Dunphy and Kyle Nolan replied for the YIs who almost snatched a goal on seven minutes.
Here Chris Blake fed the supporting Kieran Nolan who had strayed from his defensive position but the number three failed to pull the trigger. There was another escape for the McGrath Park side when keeper, Rory Doyle, dived to his right at the O’Hanrahan end to save a Niall Quinlan penalty. Chris Blake converted the resultant 45.
By the 18th minute, Éire Óg had drawn level on 0-7 each and two Diarmaid Ruth points saw them take the lead for the first time at 0-9 to 0-8. At the other end, Kane was unlucky to see his shot come back off the Éire Óg crossbar and to add injury to insult Chris Blake notched a point to stretch the YI lead to 0-11 to 0-8 at the interval.
Two Quinlan points, one from a free, saw his side go further ahead but Kane was able to make up for his earlier disappointment when his well-placed shot flew past Johnny Furey in the Éire Óg goal. Another Blake point minimised the damage for his side.
Both sides enjoyed escapes at each end with Furey saving from Darragh Nolan while the Bagenalstown keeper saved smartly from Dunphy. Not for the first time did Blake convert the 45.
Éire Óg remained on the front foot but they were unable to put their opponents away. Four wides in succession brought Bagenalstown on to them and with just ten minutes to go, a Robbie Kane effort across goal could have gone anywhere. It was hard to say who got the last touch. Perhaps it was Kyle O’Byrne, the Éire Óg midfielder but Niall Bolger was also applying the pressure. Did he get the final touch. Perhaps so but then again perhaps not.
In any case the three-pointer reduced Éire Óg’s lead to three points. Their nerves were eased when Dunphy added a point. Cian Doyle replied with a converted free and Oisin Dillon’s two pointer reduced the margin to one.
Éire Óg gained possession from the kick-out. They were never going to hold possession for two minutes plus but there was disaster for Bagenalstown when they got their hands on the ball at the scoreboard end near the stand.
Losing possession, O’Byrne pounced and with the Bagenalstown side committed to saving the game they hadn’t left numbers at the back. The pass to Dunphy was sweet. The intercounty star, made ground and easing the ball past the advancing keeper into the right hand corner of the net, Éire Óg had earned a hard earned victory.
R Dunphy 1-6 (1-2p, 1f) C Blake 0-6 (2-2p 2-45s), N Quinlan 0-4 (2fs), D Ruth 0-2, Kyle Nolan, K O’Byrne 0-1 each.
O Dillon 0-6 (1-2p f 1-2pf), R Kane 1-2, C Doyle 0-4 (fs), N Bolger 1-0, P McDonnell 0-1.
Johnny Furey; Lee Moore, Kieran Nolan, Fiach O’Toole; Alex Delaney, Adam Nolan, Kyle Nolan; Kyle O’Byrne, Eoghan Ruth; Niall Quinlan, Darragh O’Brien, Mark Furey; Diarmuid Ruth, Chris Blake, Ross Dunphy.
Cathal Kelly for Kieran Nolan (h/t), Colm Hulton for Quinlan (35), Benny Kavanagh for D Ruth (44), Adam McCarron for Adam Nolan (48), Eoin Myers for O’Toole (58).
Rory Doyle; Thomas McDonnell, Sean Wall, Patrick Abbey; Patrick McDonnell, Danny Doyle, Shane Clarke; Oisin Dillon, Darragh Nolan; Jason Dillon, Jamie Clarke, Jake Doyle; Cian Doyle, Robbie Kane, Billy Fitzpatrick.
Niall Bolger for S Clarke (17), Alan Wall for J Dillon (44), Ross O’Neill for Fitzpatrick (48).
James Foley (Kilbride).
