Credit Union County Senior Football League, Division 2, Round 4.
Templenoe 1-12, Ardfert 3-10.
Templenoe hosted Ardfert in the fourth round of the county league on Sunday. Three goals from the visitors after a rocky opening quarter helped them come away from Templenoe with a full share of the spoils.
The game was played in beautiful sunshine with the breeze favouring Templenoe in the first half. Fionan Egan (f) and Kieran McCarthy swapped points to open the scoring. Then county player Killian Spillane showed his class to put the ball in the net from close range, following good work by Colin Crowley. Fionan Egan replied with a point from play for the visitors, but the hosts were dominating proceedings in the opening quarter and they made it count with four unanswered points courtesy of Colin Crowley (2), Brian Crowley and Killian Spillane. Nathan O’Driscoll (f) traded scores with Killian Spillane from a mark to leave score 1-06 to 0-03 after 16 minutes of play.
Then against the run of play a rocket of a shot from Ardfert wing back Earnan Ferris on the run ended in the top corner of the net for a brilliant goal. This blew the contest wide open. Nathan O’Driscoll followed this up with a point and then Templenoe were rocked by a second Ardfert goal after a speculative ball in towards the Templenoe goal broke kindly to Darragh Courtney and he finished it perfectly. Suddenly the hosts who appeared to be coasting in the first quarter, found themselves one point down. Gary O’Riordan added another point for the visitors, but Templenoe regrouped and had the final two scores of the first half from Gavin Crowley and Mark Casey to leave the sides all square at the interval.
Half Time Score: Templenoe 1-08, Ardfert 2-05.
On resumption Templenoe continued where they left off with two points on the trot from Colin Crowley and Killian Spillane. But then the visitors who just seemed to be that bit better with their decision making when on the offensive than their opponents, landed another sucker punch on the hosts when Jordan Brick buried the ball to the net after he was put through on goal. This seemed to suck a bit of the life out of Templenoe and soon after Killian Spillane had to make way to compound matters for the home side. Ardfert hit the next four points in a row in an at times scrappy second half, through Tiernan O’Sullivan, Fionan Egan (2f), and Jordan Brick. This made the score 1-10 to 3-09 with 51 minutes played.
Templenoe tried hard to create openings in the Ardfert defence but had little joy and ultimately had to settle for two late frees from Colin Crowley. Ardfert made sure of their win with an Earnan Ferris point shortly before the full-time whistle.
Final Score: Templenoe 1-12, Ardfert 3-10.
Scorers:
Templenoe: Killian Spillane 1-03 (1f) (1m), Colin Crowley 0-05 (2f), Kieran McCarthy 0-01, Brian Crowley 0-01, Gavin Crowley 0-01, Mark Casey 0-01.
Ardfert: Earnan Ferris 1-01, Jordan Brick 1-01, Darragh Courtney 1-00, Fionan Egan 0-04 (3f), Nathan O’Driscoll 0-02 (1f), Gary O’Riordan 0-01, Tiernan O’Sullivan 0-01.
Teams:
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Ciaran Crowley, Kieran O’Neill, Ríain O'Byrne, Mark Casey, Gavin Crowley, Mike Hallissey, Sean Sheehan, John Rice, Kieran McCarthy, Brian Crowley, Martin Reilly, Killian Spillane, Colin Crowley, Hugh Granville.
Subs used: Daniel Crowley, John Moriarty.
Ardfert: Nicky O’Sullivan, Jack Kearney, Iarla Courtney, Trevor Wallace, Tiernan O’Sullivan, Stephen Leen, Earnan Ferris, Liam Og O’Connor, Darragh Courtney, Jordan Brick, John Egan, Gary O’Riordan, Sean Brosnan, Nathan O’Driscoll, Fionan Egan.
Subs: Harry Wallace, Keelan Best
