All too easy for Athy
Ronan Kelly made his Senior Championship debut for Athy in this evening's win over Eadestown Photo: Sean Brilly
A glittering first half display by Athy was more than enough to secure a preliminary round win over Eadestown at Cedral St Conleths Park Eadestown turned in superb displays in last year’s Championship and were one of the most impressive teams through the early games but missing the likes of Rian Boran and Cian Bolton, there was a huge gulf between themselves and Athy.
Teenagers Ronan Kelly, on his Championship debut, and Colm Moran revelled in the attacking style and scored five points between them, Moran scoring a superb four from play.
Athy were already on the front foot when they scored a freakish goal in the eighth minute when Ben Purcell’s shot looped over Shane Sargent’s head and into the net.
Eadestown floundered in attack and their best move of the half came in the closing action before the whistle when Pauric Touhy rounded off a fine move with a good finish but at that stage it was 1-13 to 0-4 for Athy.
The scoring rate slowed down somewhat in the second half until Niall Kelly scored three late points for Athy but under joint managers Ross Bell and Conor Ronan, and with Paddy Dunne and James Eaton on the management team, all Athy stalwarts, this was a good way for their kickstart their Championship.
James Roycroft; Sean Moore, Padraig Spillane, Darren Lawlor, Brian Maher 0-1, Cathal McCarron, James McGrath; Kevin Feely 0-1, David Hyland; Colm Moran 0-4, Barry Kelly 0-2, Conor Doyle, Ronan Kelly 0-2, Ben Purcell 1-2, Niall Kelly 0-7 (3fs). Subs: Michael Spillane 0-1 for Lawlor, 22 Jack Dooley for Doyle, 50; Brian Kelly for R Kelly, 55.
Shane Sargent; Harry Carroll, John Lawlor, Paul O’Dwyer, Daire Dillon, Sean Hynes, Tom Mernagh; Niall Cummins 0-1 (1tpf), Dara McGettrick; Fiachra Bracken O’Brien, Ben Fitzsimons, Cian Boran, Eoin Conneff 0-2fs, Charlie Carroll 0-1, Pauric Tuohy 0-1. Subs: Conor McCarthy for Bracken O’Brien, h/t; Calum Murphy for McGettrick, 58.
Ken Doyle.
Read our score-by-score account here
