Didier Cordonnier Inspires Two Mile House to Impressive Victory over Rathangan
No way out for Aran Teahan (Rathangan) as he is tackled by Tony O'Connor and Peter Kelly of Two Mile House.
It was the Didier Cordonnier show last Sunday afternoon in a bright and breezy Hawkfield for the last of the intermediate football championship quarter-finals. The Two Mile House goalkeeper gave a performance for his team that he will never forget, kicking 13 points, including five superb two-pointed frees. Rathangan had the edge at half-time and lead by the minimum, Eoghan Boyle’s goal after 13 minutes a key factor. Led by Cordonnier, Two Mile House would prove to be the ones to push through to a semi-final clash with St. Laurences.
Two Mile House were off the mark after three minutes, when Jack Collins registered the opening point of the game. Didier Cordonnier would come up the field to slot over a free a couple of minutes later, which would prove to be a sign for what was to come. It would be his only single-pointed score of the match. Rathangan got up and running through Sam Savage, who would finish the game with eight points to his name, the first coming after ten minutes, and scoring all of Rathangan’s first-half points. Three of them coming from frees, and one a superb two-pointer off the left boot coming on the half hour mark. Eoghan Boyle would strike for the only goal of the game on 13 minutes, when he was on the end of a slick team move to slot the ball into the net with great conviction and composure. Chris Healy scored next for Two Mile House after 22 minutes, before Didier Cordonnier kicked a brace of two-pointed frees, the first heading into added-time off the ciotóg to ensure a 1-5 to 0-7 lead for Rathangan at the break.
Cordonnier repeated the dose at the start of the second-half, the first two-pointer after 32 minutes was an inspirational score off the left foot from range, and the other was a free converted from around 50 metres out. Michael McLoughlin added the extras by the 40th minute, while Chris Healy extended the lead further, before Cordonnier struck again in the 46th minute to push his Chris Carey’s men seven in-front. Rathangan fought back, through Sam Savage and Aran Teahan, an inspired Two Mile House would always keep them at arm’s length.
Wing-back Andrew Cregg pointed with ten minutes of normal time to go, before Didier Cordonnier landed the point of the match. The goalkeeper converted an inspirational and enormous kick from at least 60 metres out in the 54th minute, and after further scores in added-time from Adam Conneely and Chris Healy, Two Mile House had a date with the Larries to look forward to.
Two Mile House: David Cordonnier 0-13 (5two-pointer frees, 1two-pointer, 0-1free); PJ Cashman, Peter Kelly, Tom Hennebery (black-card62); Andrew May, William Burke, Andrew Cregg 0-1; Marcus Kiely, Adam Conneely; Tony O’Connor, Brian Collins, Jack Collins 0-1; Gavin Burke, Conor Keogh, Chris Healy 0-3 (black-card64).
Substitutes: Michael McLoughlin 0-1 for Jack Collins (6), Aidan Casey 0-1 for Brian Collins (35), Glenn Burke for Conor Keogh (47), Liam Cummins for PJ Cashman (55).
Rathangan: Craig Shannon; David Vaughan, Daniel Mulpeter, Shane O’Loughlin; Alex Conlan, Michael Fitzsimons, Mark Fitzsimons; Eoghan Boyle 1-0, Rian Teahan; Conor Jamieson, Stefan Lawlor, Aran Teahan 0-2; Sam Savage 0-8 (0-5frees, 1two-pointer), Muiris Curtin, Austin Donegan.
Substitutes: Sean Behan for Muiris Curtin (41), Ross Teahan for Conor Jamieson, Eoin Curtin for Alex Conlan and Feilim Doyle for Stefan Lawler (45), Niall Ahern for David Vaughan (56).
Referee: Frank Delaney.
Man of the Match: David Cordonnier (Two Mile House).
