Impressive, but not consistent would be the story of Junior Win
August 28, 2021
Killavullen overcame a spirited Kilshannig team in tonight’s Junior A football championship, and Kilshannig, will have being very impressed with the form of their star player Barry O Shea, who surely will advance onto their intermediate team very, very soon.
Killavullen opened in a whirlwind fashion, and got their opening scoring in the 1st minute, from a Charlie Lillis point, after Mark Nagel had been fouled, close to goals. Seamus O Mahony scored another quick point in the second, and Liam Fox, had our third score by the fourth minute. Charlie Lillis then scored in the fifth minute, but Kilshannig were very dangerous up front, operating with a two man full forward line, and effecting great space in front of those two players, notably O Shea, who is a fine, fine player. Kilshannig got two quick points, in the 6th and 7th minutes, before Eddie Cotter got our next point in the 10th minute. That man O Shea then showed his prowess by kicking two points from frees, the opening one, being a very impressive strike from distance and an acute angle. Kilshannig got back on parity with us, in the 14th minute to leave the teams on co-scores at the water break, 0-05 apiece.
After a quick water break, Seamus O Mahony got our next score with the inter play between a number of players impressive before Liam Fox scored his second of the night, in the next minute. We were in the ascendancy in this period around midfield when Paul O Sullivan was in that position and we got our next point from a dead ball situation that Liam Cronin converted in the 20th minute. We put significant day light between the team in the 22nd minute when Liam Fox raced through the centre to score a very well taken goal. Seamus scored again, and Kilshannig lost a player to a straight red after a vigilant umpire captured a moment of madness off the ball. The numeric advantage allowed up to place a player in front their danger man, to cut out the through balls to him, and that worked for a good while, until Kilshannig figured out other tactics. Kilshannig got a point back in the 24th minute before Paul O Sullivan capped his good initial half with a point in the 25th and another in the 28th minutes, peppered in between by a point for Kilshannig in the 27th minute. At the interval we led by 1-11 to 0-07, and we were good value for that margin, with a fine initial half, of the game.
We stretched out that lead further in the 2nd minute of the 2nd half, when Mark Nagle sent a booming point high up into the sky, and over the bar and Eddie Cotter scored a nice point for us on the 5th minute. Charlie Lillis then scored a nice point from a free in the 9th minute, to raise into a commanding lead 1-14 to 0-08. Kilshannig got a score back before Killavullen brought on their initial substitutions, Colm Looney for Mark Nagle, and Darragh O Grady for Liam Cronin. We thought that we had scored another point from a free from an angle from Charlie, but in the confusion, one umpire thought it was over the bar, the other said no, and ultimately the referee decided that is was wide, so we accepted that decision. Kilshannig got a point back from another free, in the 14th minute to leave the score at the final water break, 1-14 to 0-09.
On the resumption, Kilshannig came much more into the game, and really served up a fine finish of their own to effect a doubt in the minds of our players and spectators. Charlie quelled those doubts with a pointed free in the 19th minute, before we introduced some more players, from our considerable bench of 27 togged out players on the night. After impressing on Tuesday night last with the Junior B team, Conor Griffin came on for Billy Norris, Mickey O Connor came on for Kevin Fox, and Noah Butler was introduced for Seamus Fox. All of these substitutions interrupted the manner of the game, but were very necessary to give persons game time, and Mikey showed how effective he can be, close in on goals, with a lovely point in the 24th minute.
Sean Woulfe came on for Paul O Sullivan, and though Kilshannig closed out with 3 points, Killavullen had done enough earlier in the game, to finish on a score line of 1-16 to 1-12.
The team was
- James Angland
- Eoin Birchill
- Billy Norris
- Michael Cagney
- Seamus Fox
- Fionn Magner
- Brian Cotter
- Kevin Fox
- Liam Cronin(0-01F)
- Eddie Cotter (0-02)
- Paul O Sullivan (0-02)
- Charlie Lillis (0-04, 0-03F)
- Mark Nagle (0-01)
- Liam Fox (1-02)
- Seamus O Mahony (0-03)
Substitutes
- Colm Looney for Mark Nagle (injured)
- Darragh O Grady for Liam Cronin
- Conor Griffin for Billy Norris
- Mikey O Connor (0-01) for Kevin Fox
- Noah Butler for Seamus Fox
- Sean Woulfe for Paul O Sullivan