Lusmagh 2-13 Shamrocks 1-15

[Lone Shark]

After the drama that preceded this game with Belmont’s somewhat appropriate Phoenix from the Flames act on the weekend of Tullamore’s Phoenix festival, spectators in O’Connor Park on Saturday evening would have been considered unreasonable if they were to ask for a second game of such high drama and tension. Outlandish as it may have seemed at the beginning to think both games on the card would be decided by a point after injury time goals for the winning side in both cases, they were to turn out just like that, as Lusmagh matched Belmont’s late escape with a Houdini act of their own. Lusmagh had been marginally the better team throughout the first forty minutes, but in the last third of the game they faded badly, and can consider themselves lucky to have been within a puck of the ball in the closing minutes, as some better decision making on the ball from Shamrocks, or some more judicious shot selection could easily have left them out of reach and safely into the quarter finals.

While Shamrocks will no doubt regret failing to secure automatic passage into the quarter finals in this game, they can take satisfaction from the fact that they were at least as good as the Group three winners throughout most of this match, and while both sides are a world away from the standard required to trouble Birr or Coolderry in the quarter finals, they have both shown considerable improvement on 2004 so far this year, and are very much on an upward curve, albeit starting from a very low base.

The scoring came thick and fast in the early minutes, six flags being raised in the first six minutes. An early John Troy free was followed by a fine catch and score from Dara Minnock off a Colin Dunne delivery. Fintan Kelly hit a fine point on the run to put Lusmagh back in front, only to be cancelled out by a Trevor Darcy free. Stephen Delaney then got the first goal of the game, a fine piece of opportunism. A long ball went into the Lusmagh backline, and full back John Kelly initially did a fine job of ushering the ball away from goals, before scuffing his clearance. The ball fell to Delaney, who burst through and finished low and hard past Eoin Kelly in goals. Over the course of this game, Delaney’s talent was very obvious to all watching, including county manager John McIntyre, and if he can learn from Aidan Hanrahan at the far end who also scored well but was exemplary in terms of work rate and defensive duties to boot, then he could yet feature in county colours.

The trading of scores was to continue – Hanrahan and Stephen Dunne both scoring from play, before a John Troy free was matched with the best score of the game, a point on the run from Shamrocks wing back Mark Yeates from all of 70 metres out on the right hand side.

The game was levelled up on fourteen minutes, centre forward Austin Lynch was first to a breaking ball in behind the half back line, and he found himself in enough room to advance to the corner of the area before shooting under Shane Molloy and in. Lusmagh followed up this score with further points - Hanrahan, Paul Hogan, and John Troy all scoring before the break. They held a three point lead with only a couple of minutes to go to the half time whistle, but a late burst from Shamrocks sent the sides in at 1-8 apiece. Delaney, always causing problems in the Lusmagh backline, was fouled for a free, duly converted by Darcy, next Dara Minnock reacted first to a loose ball and put his snap shot over, and substitute Anthony Condron then scored to round off the scoring for the half.

Much like the first half, the second half started with a flurry of scores. Two points each were scored initially before Lusmagh went two clear with two in a row to lead by 1-12 to 1-10 on 39 minutes. From here though the west Offaly team faded out badly, and Shamrocks began to take control around half back and midfield. Their forwards were chipping in with scores regularly too, and consecutive scores by Kevin Cummins, Darcy, Delaney and Colin Dunne between the 40th and 44th minutes put them in a commanding position. The next ten minutes was when they needed to push on and secure the game, and though they had a lot of possession, they failed to do so. Still, Lusmagh looked for all the world like they weren’t going to punish this wastefulness, particularly when John Troy missed a simple free from the 21. Hanrahan did convert a free to reduce the deficit to one, but when Trevor Darcy put over another placed ball from almost 60 metres out, he raised his fist, thinking the job was done, a sentiment shared by the Shamrocks contingent in attendance.

Lusmagh hadn’t looked like getting a goal at any stage in the half, but if they were to rob one, it was bound to come from Hanrahan, quite obviously the star turn in this game. Sure enough, when the long ball was hit into the area and broken down in front by the defence, it was the wiry county player who was on hand to pull first time off the ground and secure his teams unbeaten run for another game, and in doing so, ensure Shamrocks will have to face at least one more game to reach the knockout stages.


Teams:

Lusmagh: Eoin Kelly; Brian Bermingham, John Kelly, Kevin Bermingham; Brian Larkin, Pat Temple, Adrian Kelly; Brendan Temple, Paul Bermingham; Fintan Kelly (0-2), Austin Lynch (1-0), John Troy (0-6, 0-5 frees); Paul Hogan (0-1), Adrian Lynch, Aidan Hanrahan (1-4, 0-1 free).

Sub: David Moran for Pat Temple.

Shamrocks: Shane Molloy; Thomas Coughlan, Shane Monaghan, Declan Conroy; Mark Yeates (0-1), Brian Kearney, Damien Minnock; Neville Coughlan, Colin Dunne (0-1); Trevor Darcy (0-5, 0-4 frees), Kevin Cummins (0-1), Stephen Dunne (0-1); Dara Minnock (0-2), Stephen Delaney (1-3), Jimmy Conway.

Subs: Enda Minnock for Kevin Cummins (Blood Sub), Anthony Condron (0-1) for Brian Kearney


Referee: Tony Carroll