O'Neill's late scores secure surprise win for Palatine
Shane O'Neill landed a couple of crucial late scores as Palatine defeated Rathvilly in the opening round of the Michael Lyng Motors Senior Football Championship in Netwatch Cullen Park Photo: ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Palatine 0-10 Rathvilly 0-8
Palatine caused an opening day Senior Football Championship shock when they outfought and outscored Rathvilly in Netwatch Cullen Park on Friday.
The eventual winners dominated the early exchanges with goalkeeper, Craig Kearney, opened the scoring with a pointed free on seven minutes. Josh Egan added another point but Rathvilly hit back with points from Brandon Kelly and Kevin Murphy.
In a cautious affair, Palatine hit six wides in the first half and it was no surprise that the rate of scoring was slow in the monsoon conditions. Another Kearney free gave Palatine a 0-5 to 0-4 interval lead.
The second half continued in much the same trend as the opening thirty minutes. A Conor Doyle point levelled at 0-6 each for Rathvilly but they didn’t drive on.
Instead Palatine opened up a three-point lead with Shane O’Neill landing two good points which helped fill his side with confidence. Rathvilly lost Ed Finnegan to a straight red card and with that Rathvilly were in an uphill battle. Palatine did struggle to get possession from the kick-out but the superior numbers told as they played keep ball to win the game.
Scorers
S O’Neill (1f), C Kearney (2fs), C Crowley 0-2 each, J Egan 0-1, C Moran 0-1, T Kenny 0-1, B McMahon 0-1 (mark)
K Murphy 0-3 (1f), E Molloy 0-2, J Moore 0-1, B Kelly 0-1 C Doyle 0-1 each,
Craig Kearney; Conor O’Doherty, Cian Cashman, Jack Deacy; Ciaran Moran, Jamie Kenny, Cillian Duff; Jason Kane, Finbarr Kavanagh; Bryan McMahon, Shane O’Neill, Tomas Kenny; Andrew Kehoe, Conor Crowley, Josh Egan. Subs: Brian Broderick for Deacy (blood 20), James Cranny for Kenny (50).
Regan Murphy; Colin Byrne, Eric Molloy, Paraic Deering; Padhraig Bolger, Josh Moore, Robbie Ryan; Ed Finnegan, Adam Burgess; Ryan Sibbald, Brandon Kelly, Jake Elliott; Kevin Murphy, Brendan Murphy, Conor Doyle. Subs: Darragh Murphy for Ryan (41), Dara Curran for Sibbald (47), Keith Curran for Bolger (53).
Patrick Murphy (Ballinkillen)
