Garveys SuperValu County Senior Football Championship, Group 4, Round 3.
Templenoe 0-10, Feale Rangers 1-14.
Despite losing out to an in form Feale Rangers by seven points, Templenoe are through to the County Championship quarter-final for the third year in a row, by virtue of South Kerry drawing with St Brendans in the other group match. A late Nathan O’Driscoll free for St Brendans was enough to draw that game and render the Templenoe, Feale Rangers result immaterial.
A large crowd came out to watch this round 3 game, which was played in dry conditions in Templenoe last Sunday. The hosts who took to the field without the services of Mark Looney, Patrick Clifford, Colin Crowley and Stephen O’Sullivan due to injury, held their own in the first half, until Feale Rangers Barry Mahony struck the game’s only goal shortly before the half time whistle. Aidan Crowley opened the scoring after he landed a 45 over the bar. Then Feale Rangers hit back with the next three scores on the trot courtesy of David Keane (f), Shane Stack and Sean Keane to give them the lead, which they would never surrender. Killian Spillane pulled one back for Templenoe, before Bryan Sweeney and Barry Mahony both split the posts to make the score 0-02 to 0-05 by the 15th minute. The Spillane brothers, Adrian and Killian then linked up well, with the latter firing over two more scores, one of which was nearly a goal to reduce the margin to the minimum. Soon after opposing defenders Eddie Browne and Gavin Crowley traded scores, before Killian Spillane saw his goal bound shot denied by the visitor’s keeper Cathal Keane. A turnover by Feale Rangers inside their own half set up a counter attack that ultimately put Barry Mahony through one on one with Templenoe keeper Colm Breen and Mahony made no mistake with the finish. This put a bit of daylight between the sides, although credit to Templenoe they did reply with an Aidan Crowley point from play immediately after.
Half Time Score: Templenoe 0-06, Feale Rangers 1-06.
At the restart, Feale Rangers hit the ground running with a brace of points from Conor O’Keeffe and Martin Stack (2) to double their lead to six points. However, Templenoe responded in kind with county players Gavin Crowley, Adrian and Killian Spillane all stepping up to the plate with a point each to keep the hosts well in this game. Feale Rangers did have the upper hand throughout the contest, but at this stage it looked liked the game might be heading for a close finish, especially after Martin Stack and Aidan Crowley exchanged frees to make it 0-10 to 1-10 with 49 minutes played. Feale Rangers though had other ideas and pushed on to score the last four points of the game without reply from Cillian Trant, Barry Mahony and Martin Stack (2) to maintain their 100% record in the competition. To add to Templenoe’s woes they lost Adrian Spillane to injury late on. Yet, with news filtering through from Caherciveen that South Kerry could only manage a draw, Templenoe had already done enough in the earlier rounds to secure a quarter-final spot, which means Templenoe have so far managed to reach the last eight in the County Championship every year since the club’s promotion to senior grade.
Final Score: Templenoe 0-10, Feale Rangers 1-14.
Scorers:
Feale Rangers: Barry Mahony 1-02, Martin Stack 0-05 (2f) (1m), David Keane 0-01, Shane Stack 0-01, Bryan Sweeney 0-01, Cillian Trant 0-01, Sean Keane 0-01, Eddie Browne 0-01, Conor O’Keeffe 0-01.
Templenoe: Killian Spillane 0-04 (1f), Aidan Crowley 0-3 (1f), (1 45), Gavin Crowley 0-02, Adrian Spillane 0-01.
Teams:
Templenoe: Colm Breen, Mark Casey, Kieran O’Neill, Joseph Sheehan, Kieran McCarthy, Tadhg Morley, Gavin Crowley ©, Tom Spillane, Adrian Spillane, John Moriarty, Danny Cahalane, Martin Reilly, Jason O’Shea, Aidan Crowley, Killian Spillane.
Subs Used: Cian Hallissey, John Rice, Michael F O’Connor, Dan O’Connor.
Feale Rangers: Cathal Keane, Donnacha Maher, Eddie Browne, Aaron O’Connor, Conor O’Keeffe, Ger McCarthy, Niall Collins, Bryan Sweeney, Cillian Trant, Thomas Scanlon, Barry Mahony, Shane Stack, David Keane, Martin Stack, Sean Keane.
Subs used: Eamonn O’Flaherty, Rory Mahony, Nigel O’Connor, Michael Kennedy, Shane Carmody.
