Carbury win tense affair to secure senior status
Tommy Gill kicked three important points for Carubry during their win over St Laurences
It was far from pretty, but Carbury did just enough to extend their stay in senior ranks beyond 93 years as they edged out St Laurence’s in Group C of the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship at Manguard Park on Saturday afternoon.
The result leaves St Laurence’s facing into a relegation final and while there was plenty of effort from a team who had dispensed with manager Pat Ryan after their seven-goal hammering by Raheens, Larries didn’t ever really look like clawing back the four-point gap Carbury opened up before they registered their first score.
St Laurence’s struggled with the crosswind in the opening half, nerves perhaps playing their part as well given the stakes, and it was 23 minutes before Jason McHugh registered their opening point after TJ Nolan was fouled 25 metres from the posts.
By then Carbury already had four points on the board. Tommy Gill, their star man in the opening half, opened their account from outside the ‘D’ after three minutes, Alan Kearney added a second six minutes later.
Eoin Cully with a trademark left footer and Gill with his second put them in the driving seat.
By then St Laurence’s had five wides on the board but McHugh’s point gave them a boost and after Gill’s third point in the 28th minute, McHugh made it 0-5 to 0-2 at the interval with Larries’ first point from play.
Young James Donnelly took the fight to Carbury in the early stages of the second half. His run drew a foul that paved the way for a McHugh free to narrow the gap to two and after hard-working Carbury midfielder Kearney replied for Carbury, another of the younger crew, TJ Nolan scored with a booming effort from the right wing to make it 0-6 to 0-4.
Jimmy Dunne came forward to relieve some of the tension for Carbury with a fine score, but Felix Lawlor replied with a close-range free for Larries.
Jack Cully’s free made it a three-point game again after 47 minutes but a magnificently struck free from 40 metres from Lawlor narrowed the gap to two again heading into the last ten minutes (0-8 to 0-6).
Carbury sprung the vastly experienced Morgan O’Flaherty from the bench to help shore things up, with St Laurence’s looking to Pádraig O’Neill, of similar vintage, to drag them back into it.
Try as they might, Larries ran into brick walls and failed to score again with Carbury lifting the siege four minutes into injury time when Gill was brought down and Jack Cully’s free secured their safety for another year.
Larries meanwhile, face the bottom team in Group D in their second successive relegation decider having overcome Ballyteague last year.
Wayne Cummins; Jimmy Dunne 0-1, Conor Gallagher, Brian Milmoe; Ciaran McKeon, Stephen McKeon, Tommy Gill 0-3; Alan Kearney 0-2, David Kelly; Jack Smith, JP Gill, Jack Cully 0-2 (2fs); Eoin Cully 0-1, James Kelly, Brian O’Flaherty. SUBS: James Carey for D Kelly 37, Dean Cummins for Jack Smith 44, Dale Redmond for J Kelly 46, Paul Fleming for C McKeon 49, Morgan O’Flaherty for JP Gill 52.
Paul Clynch; Michael O’Sullivan, Niall Clynch, Brendan Keatley; Oisín Grufferty, Luke Gorman, Niall O’Connor; Senan Murphy, James Donnelly; TJ Nolan 0-1, Tom Dooley, Kevin Eustace; Felix Lawlor 0-2 (2fs), Jason McHugh 0-3 (2fs), Adam Steed. SUBS: Chris Fenner for Steed 28, Pádraig O’Neill for Eustace 55, Jack Dargan for Dooley 58, Ciaran O’Sullivan for O’Connor 60+3.
Conor Daly
