14-man Rathvilly reach first SFC final since 2021
Conor Doyle on his way to scoring a goal early in the second half Photo: Pat Ahern
Rathvilly are back in the county final after a gap of three years. They dug ever so deep to carve out a narrow victory over Old Leighlin on Sunday in Netwatch Cullen Park.
There was an explosive start to this Carlow senior football championship semi-final when Padhraig Bolger was red-carded on five minutes. In a moment of madness he kicked out at Old Leighlin’s Seamus Kinsella and left referee, Jonathan Murphy, with no alternative. The sides were level at the time at one point a piece.
The fourteen players shook off the loss and when Old Leighlin coughed up possession on their own 45 metre line, Rathvilly swooped and Brendan Murphy gave the goal scoring pass to Kevin Murphy.
Old Leighlin hit back with two frees from Cathal Coughlan and Mikey Bambrick scoring his second point of the game. Again Rathvilly had an answer to the concessions and Murphy provided the assist for Brandon Kelly to score a second goal.
At the break, Rathvilly led 2-3 to 0-4. On the restart, a raid into the Old Leighlin half saw Conor Doyle break forward in possession. With space opening up in front of him, he took his chance and found the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
Rathvilly absorbed all that was thrown at them as Old Leighlin sought to recover. Coughlan and Seamus Kinsella pointed but Rathvilly’s big two on the day, Doyle and Murphy, also raised white flags. Eventually Old Leighlin pressure told and Mikey Bambrick availed of a high delivery to find the net. Steven Scallan also converted a 45 to leave only three in it.
Old Leighlin needed a goal. Rathvilly used a blanket defence and Niall Roche had to settle for a point. It wasn’t enough. His colleagues never got another real chance and the fourteen players survived.
K Murphy 1-1 (1f), C Doyle 1-1, B Kelly 1-0, B Murphy 0-2, P Bolger 0-1 each.
M Bambrick 1-2, C Coughlan 0-4 (3fs), S Kinsella (f), S Scallan (45), N Roche 0-1 each
Robbie Molloy; Colin Byrne, Eric Molloy, Paraic Deering; Padhraig Bolger, Josh Moore, Dara Curran; Brendan Murphy, Adam Burgess; Brandon Kelly, Liam Gavin, Jake Elliott; Kevin Murphy, Ed Finnegan, Conor Doyle. Subs: Robbie Ryan for Deering (h/t), Brian Smith for Elliott (53).
Steven Scallan; Tadhg O’Neill, Jordan Kelly, Roy Sheehy; Tadhg Roche, Niall Roche, Sean Taylor; Ian Atkinson, David Bambrick; Seamus Kinsella, Mikey Bambrick, James Dowling; Cathal Coughlan, Aaron Amond, Darragh Fitzgerald. Subs: Jamie Doyle for Kinsella (39), Shane Dooley for Taylor (49).
Jonathan Murphy (St Mullins).
