Garveys SuperValu County Senior Football Championship, Group 4, Round 2.
St Brendans 1-12, Templenoe 3-07.
Templenoe just about held on for a big win on the road against St Brendans in Ardfert last Saturday evening. This result put Templenoe in with a good chance of reaching the County Championship quarter-final stage for the third year running. Templenoe are now six games unbeaten since the beginning of August and next weekend will host Feale Rangers in what will be Templenoe’s first ever County Championship game at home venue.
The weather conditions were perfect and a big crowd was in attendance to witness this Round 2 tie. Ivan Parker opened the scoring with a pointed free five minutes in, but both sides were misfiring throughout the first half with scores hard to come by. Indeed, it took Templenoe twelve minutes to register their first score courtesy of a Killian Spillane free. The visitors had chances to go in front immediately after, but failed to take the opportunities presented. St Brendans make Templenoe pay with the next three scores on the trot from Nathan O’Driscoll, Robert Monaghan and Alan O’Donoughue to make it 0-04 to 0-01 after nineteen minutes. St Brendans did look the more the dangerous going forward at this stage, but the Templenoe defence led by Tadhg Morley in particular were playing a very effective game at keeping their opponents at bay for the most part. While at the other end the St Brendans defence were also having much success and managed to keep Templenoe scoreless from play in the first half. Stephen O’Sullivan bagged a much needed free for the Templenoe in the 22nd Minute, before Robert Monaghan and Killian Spillane exchanged points, to leave the hosts going in two points to the good at half time.
Half Time Score: St Brendans 0-05, Templenoe 0-03.
Templenoe opted to remain on the field for their half time discussion and whatever got said at the break, appeared to work with a magical first six minutes to the second half for the visitors. It all started with Patrick Clifford clinically dispatching the ball to the net, after he found himself one on one with the keeper, following good build up play from Tadhg Morley and Danny Cahalane. Then Stephen O’Sullivan did brilliant to fist home a high ball in from Danny Cahalane, before he added his second (Templenoe’s third) goal from close range with Danny Cahalane once again involved. Soon after Stephen O’Sullivan converted a placed ball to open up an eight points gap with the scoreboard reading 0-05 to 3-04 with 39 minutes played. St Brendan were left with a steep mountain to climb, but climb it their very nearly did. Former Kerry senior panellist David O’Callaghan and Daithi Griffin started the comeback with two well taken points. Danny Cahalane responded by cleverly swinging his hand to a ball that was dropping short from an Aidan Crowley free to restore Templenoe’s lead to seven. However, St Brendans were now taking control and hit the next five points on the trot, with Daithi Griffin (2), Robert Monaghan (2) and Alan O’Donoghue all contributing, to reduce the margin to just two points by the 58th minute and they also had a goal chance stopped on the line, the score was now 0-12 to 3-05. Somewhat similar to the previous week against South Kerry, Templenoe were very much on the back foot and struggling to lift the siege. But Aidan Crowley did help settle the nerves with two huge frees from distance to give the visitors a four points lead with almost up. St Brendans were not finished though and the game took one final twist, with Joe Lenihan burying the ball to the net to put the bare minimum between the sides three minutes into injury time. The last kick out went Templenoe’s way and they held onto it for dear life to secure another big win for the club.
Final Score: St Brendans 1-12, Templenoe 3-07.
Scorers:
St Brendans: Robert Monaghan 0-04, Daithi Griffin 0-03 (1f), Joe Lenihan 1-00, Alan O’Donoghue 0-02, Ivan Parker 0-01 (1f), Nathan O’Driscoll 0-01, David O’Callaghan 0-01 (1f).
Templenoe: Stephen O’Sullivan 2-02 (2f), Patrick Clifford 1-00, Killian Spillane 0-02 (2f), Aidan Crowley 0-02 (2f), Danny Cahalane 0-01.
Teams:
St Brendans Board: Sean Broderick, Thomas Kearns, Michael Walsh, Eric Leen, Ivan Parker, Fionan Mackessy, Jason Mortimer, Robert Monahan, Joe Lenihan, Shane O’Connor, David O’Callaghan, Daithi Griffin, Nathan O’Driscoll, Alan O’Donoghue, Liam O’Donnell.
Subs used: Eddie McCarthy, Darragh O’Sullivan, Earnan Ferris, Mikey Kelliher, John Horgan.
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Joseph Sheehan, Kieran O’Neill, Brian Crowley, Patrick Clifford, Tadhg Morley, Kieran McCarthy, Tom Spillane, Adrian Spillane, Mark Casey, Danny Cahalane, Colin Crowley, Stephen O’Sullivan, Aidan Crowley, Killian Spillane.
Subs Used: Hugh Granville, Michael F O’Connor, Gavin Crowley.
Article - Match report, John O'Dowd - The Irish Examiner
