Portarlington's greater experience tells as Old Leighlin bow out of Leinster
Old Leighlin's Mikey Bambrick
Portarlington’s greater experience on the Leinster stage told in the end as they saw off Old Leighlin at Netwatch Cullen Park this evening.
A run of 0-7 to 0-1 in the second quarter proved decisive. Old Leighlin never lacked for effort and there was a stage with 10-15 minutes to go where they had Portarlington under pressure but they never scored the goal or two pointer that they needed to really rattle the Laois champions. In the end, Rioghan Murphy scored a goal in the fourth minute of injury time to put a flattering nine points between the teams by the final whistle.
Portarlington deployed a high press from the very early stages and scored points through Rioghan and Colm Murphy against a shell-shocked looking Old Leighlin.
A couple of Seamus Kinsella frees settled Brian Lonergan’s men into the game but an 18th minute point from Patrick O’Sullivan put Port back into the lead.
Perhaps the crucial moment of the game came a minute later. Old Leighlin forced a turnover in midfield and they quickly counter-attacked against a stretched defence. Aaron Amond’s final pass was just a little behind Mikey Bambrick but he was still able to retrieve the ball and get a shot away but it struck the outside of the post and went wide.
Had Bambrick’s shot gone six inches the other side of the post the game could have taken a very different route but on the back of that let off, Portarlington put the foot on the pedal and moved into a 0-9 to 0-3 lead by half time.
That lead was out to 0-11 to 0-3 by the 43rd minute but a black card shown to Portarlinton centre forward Ronan Coffey for a foul on Kinsella in the 49th minute gave Old Leighlin new life.
A determined run a minute later by the always willing Bambrick ended with Old Leighlin’s first point of the second half. Amond was narrowly off target from two point range but then hit the mark from inside the arc before Sean Taylor scored in the 55th minute to leave the scores at 0-11 to 0-6.
They were really dominating around the middle during this stage of the game with Ian Atkinson making a couple of eye-catching fetches but Portarlington showed their experience at this level.
A near two minute spell of possession ended with a wide from Jason Moore but it completely took the sting out of Old Leighlin’s building momentum.
Sean Michael Corcoran’s point in the last minute of normal time killed off the game as a contest before Murphy’s late, late goal put the icing on the cake and Portarlington move on to quarter-final against St Martins of Louth.
Luke O’Reilly; Mikey Bennett, Robbie Piggott, Curtis Lyons, Alex Mohan, Jason Moore, Patrick O’Sullivan 0-2; Keith Bracken, Eoin McCann; Darragh Slevin, Ronan Coffey 0-1, Rioghan Murphy 1-2 (1f), Jordan Fitzpatrick 0-2, Darragh Galvin, Colm Murphy 0-4fs. Subs: Tom Corcoran for Galvin, 49; Sean Michael Corcoran 0-1 for Fitzpatrick, 59.
Steven Scallan; Jordan Kelly, Sean Bambrick, Tadhg Roche, Tadhg O’Neill, Niall Roche, Jamie Doyle; Ian Atkinson, Mikey Bambrick 0-2; Darragh Fitzgerald, David Bambrick, James Dowling, Cathal Coughlan, Seamus Kinsella 0-2fs, Aaron Amond 0-1. Subs: Sean Taylor 0-1 for D Bambrick, 42; Mark Brennan for Coughlan, 59.
Ian Howley (Dublin).
