Garvey’s SuperValu County Senior Football Championship, Round 1.
Templenoe 1-09, Shannon Rangers 0-05
Templenoe are through to the quarter-final stages of the County Championship for the second year running, following a surefooted display to overcome Shannon Rangers in atrocious conditions at Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday. In doing so, Templenoe created more history by defeating a divisional side in the County Championship for the first time in the club’s history.
Templenoe went into this contest without the services of net minder Mark Looney, Patrick Clifford, Killian Spillane and there were injury concerns over Adrian Spillane and Teddy Doyle. Certainly not the ideal scenario to go into this game. Shannon Rangers meanwhile won the toss, but perhaps unwisely choose to play against the gale force wind and rain for the first half. From throw-in, it was Templenoe that pretty much hit the ground running and controlled the play from the off with most of the action taking place inside the Shannon Rangers half. But such were the conditions that scores were hard earned and it took six minutes for the first point to arrive with Colin Crowley doing well to slot over a placed ball. His brother Brian then doubled Templenoe’s advantage before Stephen O’Sullivan added another shortly before the first water break to make it 0-03 to 0-00.
Buoyed by their performance in the opening quarter, but equally knowing there was little in it score wise, Templenoe kept pushing forward. Their ball handling, retention and turnover’s continued to be far superior than their opponents and it didn’t take long for Templenoe to get their next score courtesy of Gavin Crowley. Further chances followed before a brace of points from Brian Crowley and Stephen O’Sullivan gave Templenoe a six points lead. Shannon Rangers did have opportunities to open their account, but failed to find the target. Then just before the interval, Adrian Spillane popped over point number 7 for Templenoe to put more than 2 goals between the sides. Normally, this would be a great position to be in, but facing into a gale for the second half, meant there were no guarantees as to the outcome of this contest.
Half Time Score: Templenoe 0-07, Shannon Rangers 0-00.
Just two minutes after the restart Teddy Doyle helped settle the nerves of the Templenoe supporters with a beautifully struck free from an acute angle to increase the margin to eight points. However, Shannon Rangers were beginning to come more into it and finally got off the mark in the 35th minute with their centre forward Padraig Boyle pointing from play. Paul Kennelly followed this up with a converted free almost immediately after. This brought the deficit back to six points and gave the Rangers hope of comeback, there was certainly plenty of time remaining. That was until Tadhg Morley got forward in the 41st minute to set up Stephen O’Sullivan for the game’s only goal and from there the result was never in doubt. Shannon Rangers substitute Jack Kennelly did reply with a point just before the 2nd half water break to make the score 1-08 to 0-03.
Templenoe did what they had do to see out the last quarter. Shannon Rangers never really threatened the Templenoe replacement goalie Martin Reilly, who along with his defence held firm against each attack, restricting Shannon Rangers to just two more points from Jack Kennelly and Mark Buckley in the final quarter. In between John Rice helped made sure of Templenoe’s win with a fine score in the 57th minute.
Templenoe now march on to play Dr Crokes in a repeat of last year’s County Championship quarter final, which promises to be a fascinating contest especially with Templenoe having had a famous win over the Crokes just over one month ago in the Club Championship.
Final Score: Templenoe 1-09, Shannon Rangers 0-05
Scorers:
Templenoe: Stephen O’Sullivan 1-02, Brian Crowley 0-02, Adrian Spillane 0-01, Colin Crowley 0-01 (1f), Gavin Crowley 0-01, Teddy Doyle 0-01 (1f), John Rice 0-01.
Shannon Rangers: Jack Kennelly 0-02 (1f), Padraig Boyle 0-01, Paul Kennelly 0-01 (1f), Mark Buckley 0-01.
Teams:
Templenoe: Martin Reilly, Michael Hallissey, Kieran O’Neill, Tadhg Morley, John Spillane, Gavin Crowley, John Rice, Josh Crowley Holland, Adrian Spillane, Teddy Doyle, Brian Crowley, Tom Spillane, Stephen O’Sullivan, Sean Sheehan, Colin Crowley.
Subs used: John Moriarty, Kieran McCarthy, Mark Casey
Shannon Rangers: Darragh O’Shea, Danny Wren, Jason Foley, Brendan O’Neill, Jack O’Sullivan, Shane Enright, Kevin Enright, Brian O’Seanachain, Micheal Foley, Darragh Keane, Padraig Boyle, Gerald O’Sullivan, Jack Foley, Michael Boyle, Paul Kennelly.
Subs used: Mark Buckley, Jack Kennelly, Cillian Langan, Neilus Mulvihill, Darragh Sheehy, Martin Collins
