2nd Round Junior Championship v Ballycomoyle

Multyfarnham 0-18 Ballycomoyle 1-4

Last Sunday 6th May Multyfarnham played Ballycomoyle in the second round of the Junior Championship in Cusack Park. The game was a late afternoon throw-in at 5.15pm. The day itself was fine with the pitch basking in glorious sunshine, no real hint of a breeze and very little if any rain all day. The match started brightly and for the first ten minutes both sides were evenly matched. A couple of neat points from Emmet Feerick and Noel Kiernan saw Multy begin to stretch into a lead. McDonnell had knocked over a free and we were looking to dominate. Around the middle of the park Ballycomoyle were breaking every kick-out and were having a lot of success cleaning up broken ball. We were conceding an awful lot of frees and these were beginning to cost as Ballycomoyle managed to get thee points on the board all from free kicks. Led by Stevie Moran in defence and Noel Kiernan in the forward line Multy began to assert their dominance. More points followed from O’Keefe, McDonnell and then a barnstorming effort worthy of the venue from Noel Kiernan. He picked up the ball from inside his own 45yard line and the carried it the length of the park with three Ballycomoyle players hanging out of him, from 30 yards out he then drove hard and low over the bar for the score of the game. What would have been a decent half for Multyfarnham was marred by a goal from Ballycomoyle on the 27th minute. A side-line on the left hand-side was taken quickly by Ballycomoyle and the Multy defence were caught sleeping. The ball was played quickly into the full forward line and McCabe in goals could do little as the forward blasted the ball into the net. At halftime Multy showed their eagerness once again and were out a good three minutes before their rivals. This eagerness showed itself in the game as Carter and Corcoran began to influence proceedings in the middle of the park. Although very little, if any ball, was fielded cleanly by either side, in the midfield Multy were beginning to get to grips with the broken ball. This possession was showing on the score board as Feerick and McDonnell began to knock over points. Anthony McGivney and James Keary came off the bench and chipped in with one and two points respectively. Max Brady, who was switched inside to full forward, suddenly came to life and pinged over a couple of rapid points as Multy’s lead began to stretch. Fine displays in the backline from Rory Boyce, Leo Blake Brian McLoughlin and especially Stevie Moran, who was my vote for man of the match, limited Ballycomoyle to just one point in the second period. When the referee blew for the end of the match the lead had grown to eleven points with Multy outscoring themselves compared to the first half. All in all it was a good performance from Multy. A high level of fitness from the majority of players coupled with a good positive attitude was responsible for us winning this game. The games can only get harder from here on in and we are beginning to simmer nicely. But there is no room for complacency, the foot cannot come off the pedal otherwise all the hard work up until now will come undone. Also it was very encouraging to see 33 lads turn up for the game and the players who started will have to be aware that there are men breathing down their necks eager to pull on that jersey. 1 C.McCabe, 2 S.Moran, 3 L.Blake, 4 B.McLoughlin, 5 R.Boyce, 6 H.Reilly, 7 P.Smith, 8 E.Carter, 9 J.Corcoran, 10 E.Feerick(0-3), 11 N.Kiernan(0-3), 12 M.Brady(0-2), 13 A.O’Keefe(0-1), 14 J.Tighe, 15 M.McDonnell(0-6,3f), 16 M.Kane for Boyce, 18 A.McGivney(0-1) for J.Tighe, 19 J.Keary(0-2) for O’Keefe, 21 D.Nolan for Corcoran, 20 J.Orme for McDonnell