Flying start sets footballers up for victory
Carlow goalscorer Sean Murphy is congratulated by Mikey Bambrick Photo: Pat Ahern
After previous defeats to Wicklow and Wexford, Carlow look as if have found their mojo with a convincing National Football League Division 4 win over Longford in Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday.
The Barrowsiders produced a superb first half performance with all their starting forwards featuring on the scoreboard by the 25th minute.
Their two goals came in the opening ten minutes. Running at the away defence both Sean Murphy and Mikey Bambrick raised a green flag each. While the forwards led the way the home defence showed a degree of intensity with a willingness to work which confounded Longford as they tried to come forward.
At the interval, the eventual winners led 2-13 to 0-2.
Longford came back into the contest after the break but they were never going to stop Carlow enjoying a relatively uneventful second half. Longford’s Matthew Carey brought his total for the seventy minutes to six points with five of those coming from frees.
Towards the end, Carlow’s Niall Hickey fired over a 50-metre point from play to claim his two-pointer. After that Dunphy had the last word for the winners with a nice point from play after a passing movement gave him the opportunity which could have even yielded a third goal.
Scorers:
M Bambrick 1-4, S Murphy 1-1, R Dunphy 0-4 (1f), A Amond (0-3, 1-2pf), N Hickey 0-2 (2p), C Crowley 0-2 (1f), C Lomax, P McDonnell, J Murphy 0-1.
M Carey 0-6 (5fs), C McCabe, J Matthews 0-2 (1f) each, A Farrell, D Reynolds, K McGann, C Lynch 0-1 each.
Johnny Furey; Paddy Regan, Mark Furey, Lee Moore; Mark Mullen, Ciaran Moran, John Murphy, Conor Crowley, Liam Brennan, Sean Murphy, Mikey Bambrick, Paddy McDonnell, Cormac Lomax, Ross Dunphy, Aaron Amond. Subs: Conor Doyle for Lomax (43), Ian Atkinson for Murphy (49), James Whelan for Moore (52), Niall Hickey for McDonnell (55), Kyle Nolan for Crowley (58), Rory Maguire for Regan (65).
Michael Hughes; Patrick Fox, Oisin O’Toole, Bryan Masterson; Peter Lynn, Ryan Moffett, Caolan Lynch; Dessie Reynolds, Daire Duggan; Jayson Matthews, Matthew Carey, Shane Campbell; Aaron Farrell, Cathal McCabe, Oran Kenny. Subs: James Moran for Campbell (33), Keelin McGann for Lynch (50), Jack Macken for Kenny (61), Ruairi Harkin for Moffett (68), Cian Brady for Lynn (62).
Niall Quinn (Clare).
