Blustery conditions and Charleville’s ability to retain the ball
September 15, 2025
Yesterday in very blustery conditions on a superb pitch in Churchtown, Killavullen struggled to cope with the size and physicality of our opponents from Charleville and their ball retention ability, in the Junior A Football championship and went down by a wide margin.
Charleville played with the aid of a very strong wind in the opening half, blowing strong down towards the village of Churchtown, and the impressive statue of a horse, outside Boss Murphy’s depicting the close association of the village, with the legendary horse trainer, Vincent O Brien. Charleville opening the scoring with a point, and pressed Killavullen on the kick out, which yielded another point for them, in the 2nd minute from Darren Butler. They added to that tally in the 5th minute, when DJ Collins scored a two pointer, from outside of the arc. Charleville’s ability to win primary possession in and around midfield, and recycle and funnel the ball about was causing us all sorts of bother. Darren scored again for Charleville, and then Jack Buckley, in the 10th minute, and we were scarcely out of our half. As a shower of rain threatened, the wind picked up adding to our complexity, and task. We rallied though with determination and plucky play from Eoin Birchill and Padraig Looney running hard at the Charleville defence and Padraig got our opening score from a free, in the 12th minute. We steadied the ship somewhat and got more of a foothold in and around midfield as our platform, from Ronan Barry , Liam Cronin and Brian Cotter and when Padraig was fouled in the act of shooting for a goal, we were awarded a penalty which Eoin dispatched expertly. 0-06 to 1-1 after 20 minutes. Ronan Barry kicked a lovely point for us, in the 22nd minute to leave only a point in the scoring between the teams.
Charleville though, jumped up from their clumber, and when they won a kick out, and out loaded quickly to Darren Butler, in splendid isolation, he was emphatic in his finish, against a helpless Mike in our goals. We coughed up three more points before the break to Charleville, two of them from close in frees, scored by Darren and another from the boot of their corner forward Donnacha Waters to leave the score at the interval 1-09 to 1-02. We were lucky not top concede another goal in that half as Mike got his hand to a pile driver and pushed it onto the bar, and it ricocheted away to safety.
The threat of rain abated and with it, the strong blustery wind, that should have been our savior in the second half. Niall Feaheny was introduced for Eddie Cotter. Charleville started impressively though, and they retained possession for long periods shuttling the ball back and forth across the field, it may not be pretty, but it demoralizes the opposition when they are chasing the ball in vain, and cannot get their hand on it. Charleville score a point from a free in the 6th minute and then a good point from play from their centre forward, Conor Buckley who got through an amount of possessions on the day in the same minute. We went further behind with the concession of another point in the 10th minute scored by Cathal O Carroll. Padraig Looney was forced off the field with a worrying ankle injury, to be replaced by Mikey O Connor. Our fleeting hopes of victory were dashed in the 12th minute when DJ Collins scored a goal, that had been threatening for a while. We went further behind with another painful white flag raised by Charleville, and Cian O Connor was introduced for Jamie Magner. Sean Palmer kicked a two point score for us in the 19th minute of the half to register our first score of the second period, and shortly afterwards was replaced by Kevin Fox. Playing on the flanks against a team like Charleville who hold the ball every well, and break in numbers on a turn over is not and was not easy . Charleville scored a two point score of their own, when their goal keeper, Jess Smith put a long range free over the bar. Charleville scored a more orthodox free from their full forward Mark Kavanagh, before Kevin Fox, from open play and Eoin Birchill from a free, brought our scoring to a close, on a tough assignment. Killavullen go into the draw for the Q-Final where as pool winners, Charleville are in a draw to see if they make the semifinal’s – All will be revealed at the Avondhu board meeting on Wednesday night.
The final score was 2-16 to 1-06
The referee was Joe Mulcahy from Kileady, in Co. Limerick and he was very assured and impressive, in his decision making, on the day.
The team was;
- Michael Walsh
- Tomas Fennell
- Fionn Magner
- Pa Angland
- Sean Palmer (0-02)
- Brian Cotter
- Jamie Magner
- Liam Cronin
- Ronan Barry (0-01)
- Owen Magner
- Padraig Looney (0-01F)
- Eddie Cotter
- Eoin Birchill (1-01, 1-01 F)
- Colm O Mahony
- Seamus O Mahony
The substitutes were;
- Niall Feaheny for Eddie Cotter
- Mikey O Connor for Padraig Looney (injured)
- Kevin Fox (0-01) for Sean Palmer
- Cian O Connor for Jamie Magner