ON a night where the heavy rain dictated most of the play, Adare emerged nine-point victors over St Kieran’s, 1-12 to 0-6, in group one of the Irish Wire Products Ltd County Senior Football Championship in Askeaton this Thursday evening.
This was Adare’s third win of the championship with one more group game to go against Na Piarsaigh on September 12. Meanwhile St Kieran’s have lost their last two championship games on the bounce to Na Piarsaigh and now Adare. They will face a confident Mungret St Paul’s in a few weeks.
Adare’s Mike O’Mahony opened the scoring of tonight’s game after making a looping run off Paul Maher’s shoulder. This opening effort was followed by Hugh Bourke’s score putting them 0-2 ahead after four minutes of play.
With slippy ball and players losing their footing, transition attack was difficult as St Kieran’s struggled to maintain possession, relying heavily on short kick-outs to transition the ball up to their forwards. After 11 minutes they were gifted what would be their only score of the opening half as Eoin McEnery made a busting run fisting the ball over the bar.
That score almost awoke Adare once again as they shot over another point from Bourke before captain Eoghan Costelloe kicked a lovely ball into the full forward line where Roy Gleeson did just enough to get his foot behind the ball and hammer it into the back of St Kieran’s net, putting Adare 1-4 to 0-1 up after 15 minutes.
A further three points were slotted over by Adare’s Davy Lyons and Paul Maher before Mike O’Mahony kicked off a gorgeous free to end the half in their favour, 1-6 to 0-1.
St Kieran’s came out after the break to get the opening score courtesy of Noel Callanan. Adare returned the score with one of their own through full-foward Liam Kennedy who had come on in the opening half after not starting the game.
Scores were exchanged for a period between both sides as Kieran’s looked to have gained a new lease of life with an incredible score from the 45 yard-line coming from captain Darragh Treacy after 47 minutes making their scoreline look slightly healthy, 1-9 to 0-5.
Disaster struck for Kieran’s though as Oran Collins was shown a red card leaving them with 14 players for the remainder of the game. Adare took this opportunity with their substitutes making a huge difference to the tired bodies out on the field as the rain continued to bucket down.
Despite the weather most scores for both sides came from play as the forwards did their best to attack the goal. Adare marched on stronger through with sub Oisin Ryan slotting over two beautiful points to finish out the game on a scoreline of 1-12 to 0-6.
SCORERS ADARE: Hugh Bourke 0-4 (0-1 free), Roy Gleeson 1-0, Mike O’Mahony 0-2 (0-1 free), Adam Canny 0-2, Davy Lyons, Paul Maher, Joe Sweeney and Cian Sparling 0-1 each.
ST KIERAN’S: Eoin McEnery, Noel Callanan, Alan Daly, Dylan Moloney, Darragh Treacy and Lorcan Murphy 0-1 each.
ADARE: Jeffery Alfred, Jack Fitzgerald, David Connolly, Cian Sparling, Eoghan Costelloe (C), Shane Doherty, Darragh Lane, Paul Maher, Joe Sweeney, Michael Southgate, Davy Lyons, Roy Gleeson, Shane O’Connor, Hugh Bourke, Mike O’Mahony. SUBS: Adam Canny for M Southgate (Half-Time), Oran Collins for D Lane (Half-Time), Stephen Flynn for M O’Mahony (41 minutes), Brandon Duffy for D Connolly (46 minutes), Mike Keating for S O’Connor (55 minutes)
ST KIERAN’S: Ray Noonan, Michael Shanahan, Brendan McCarthy, Mossie Shine, Dylan Moloney, Darragh Treacy (C), Michael Long, Diarmuid Mulcahy, Cormac Mann, Darragh McMahon, Sean Long, Lorcan Murphy, Alan Daly, Eoin McEnery, Noel Callanan. SUBS: Liam Kennedy for C Mann (21 minutes),Kevin Meade for B McCarthy (Half-Time), Anthony Mullins for N Callanan (39 minutes).
REFEREE: Kieran Guina
