Rathvilly safely into SFC semi-finals
Brandon Kelly scores an early goal for Rathvilly during their win over Fenagh
Rathvilly came out of the group stages of the Senior Football Championship without defeat after this fifth round win over a game Fenagh side at Netwatch Cullen Park on Tuesday.
For lengthy periods in the opening half, Fenagh gave as good as they got. Rathvilly’s Diarmuid Gavin opened the scoring with a point from play. Padraig Hynes converted a free and on four minutes, Sean Murphy flighted over a two-pointer but disaster struck for Fenagh when they lost an easy ball in front of their own goal and Brandon Kelly eased the ball into an empty net at the scoreboard end of the ground.
While Conor Doyle annexed four points which included a two-pointer from play and two placed balls, that three-pointer was the difference between the sides at the interval. Sean Murphy also raised an orange flag as Rathvilly led 1-8 to 0-5 at the change of ends.
After the break, the game continued in much the same trend. The heavy rain which fell made life difficult for the teams. Indicative of this was illustrated with the low rate of scoring as Rathvilly only won the second half by 0-4 to 0-3. It was that kind of night. The rain may have been badly needed around the country but the players would have preferred if it had held off for a few more hours.
B Kelly 1-3 (1f), C Doyle 0-5 (1-2p, 45), K Murphy (f), P Bolger, D Gavin (f), B Smith 0-1 each.
P Hynes 0-4 (3fs), S Murphy 0-2 (1-2p), B Collier, J Treacy 0-1 each.
Regan Murphy; Paraic Deering, Colin Byrne, Daire Byrne; Eric Molloy, Dara Curran, Brendan Murphy; Josh Moore, Kenneth Bello; Conor Doyle, Brandon Kelly, Ed Finnegan, Jake Elliott, Brian Smith, Diarmuid Gavin. Subs: Ryan Sibbald for Gavin (35), Kevin Murphy for Kelly (35), Padhraig Bolger for Moore (35), Adam Burgess for Smith (40), Liam Gavin for Elliott (52).
Jack Rowan; Darragh Byrne, Jamie McCabe, Mark Dermody; Padraig O’Brien, Jack Kehoe, Ciaran Whelan; Tommy Bric, Cormac Nolan; Ben Collier; , Colin Byrne, Sean Murphy; Jack Treacy, Padraig Hynes, Zach O’Hara. Subs: Padraig Kearney for Nolan (49), Donnacha Murphy for Collier (55).
Sean McCormack (Fighting Cocks).
