Celbridge serve up first-half onslaught to see off Allenwood in Senior Championship

Celbridge inflicted more than enough damage in the opening half to comfortably see off the challenge of Allenwood in their 2024 Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship Group B opener at Conneff Park on Saturday afternoon.

The full-forward line of Davy Hughes, Aaron Browne and Killian Browne proved unstoppable throughout the initial half hour, combining for 12 points in that period as Micheál McDermott’s men stormed into a 2-15 to 0-2 advantage by the time the half-time whistle sounded.

Kevin Flynn and Tony Archbold also made their presence felt with well-taken goals as Celbridge took complete command.

And, while Allenwood did outscore them by six points in the second half, it was not nearly enough to remedy their troubles, despite Celbridge taking their foot off the pedal.

It was Aaron Browne who got Celbridge up and running with a point on three minutes before Eoin Bagnall restored parity with a free two minutes later.

But that was as good as it would get for Allenwood on the day, as Celbridge put together a run of four unanswered points through Killian Browne, Aaron Browne, Liam O’Flynn and Mick O’Grady.

Joey Cunningham looked to have got Allenwood going again when he struck over on eight minutes, but that was to prove their last score until six minutes into the second half.

In that intervening period, Celbridge stormed well out of sight with an uninterrupted run of two goals and 11 points.

Aaron and Killian Browne, along with Hughes, applied the finishing touches to a wave of Celbridge attacks as Allenwood struggled to win their own kick-outs.

Mick O’Grady went close to rattling the net after he tore through on goal, but dragged his effort wide of the target.

Nevertheless, Celbridge did not have to wait much longer before eventually serving up their first major, as Kevin Flynn pierced the Allenwood cover and fired home with aplomb.

Tony Archbold then followed suit just ahead of the half-time whistle, as he shook off his marker and tucked the ball away with exceptional composure.

Facing a 19-point deficit at the break, Allenwood needed something very special in the second half if they were to have any hope of rescuing this tie, and they needed it fast.

Instead, it was Celbridge who drew first blood again in the second period as Archbold split the posts four minutes in to push his side’s lead out to 20.

And while Cormac Denagher ignited a run of five points, that included three on the trot for Eoin Bagnall, Allenwood were still not eating up the ground fast enough.

Indeed, goals were what were required if they were to have any hope of even challenging their opponents down the stretch, but they were not carving out the necessary openings.

Celbridge may have taken their foot off the pedal after the half-time break, but late points by Aaron and Killian Browne punctured any sort of momentum Allenwood were able to garner.

They struggled to prise open the opposing full-back line and Celbridge easily saw this one out for a win that leaves them on a sound footing ahead of next Saturday’s encounter with Athy in Manguard Park.

While far from happy with his side’s drop in intensity in the second half, Celbridge manager, Micheál McDermott was impressed with their blistering first-half display.

“Everything seemed to click in that first half” he said. “It was the support runners coming from every area in the field who were making things happen.

“We were shifting the ball quickly, there was a lot of energy and there was always options for them. They took their scores well, but the most important thing for me was that we really went after their kick-outs.

“We won about 15 out of 18 of those, so we got good change out of that. That’s a thing we focused on especially for today’s game, so that was one of the most pleasing aspects of the first half” he smiled.

CELBRIDGE: Shane McNamara, John Clarke, Cian Powell, Dean O’Donoghue, Kevin Flynn (1-0), Fergal Conway, Liam O’Flynn (0-2), Hugh McGrillen, Mick O’Grady (0-1), Niall O’Regan, Tony Archbold (1-1), Cormac O’Sullivan, Davy Hughes (0-3), Aaron Browne (0-7), Killian Browne (0-5).

SUBS: Mick Konstantin for Conway (46 mins), James Dolan for Hughes (46 mins) and Paddy Wall for O'Sullivan (52 mins).

ALLENWOOD: Luke Anderson, Fionn Moran, Sean Moran, Cillian Moran, Mark Byrne, Ronan Guilfoyle, Gavin Malone, Cormac Denagher (0-4), Rory Moran, Johnny Byrne, John Doyle (0-2), Aaron Dunne, Brendan Hanafey, Eoin Bagnall (0-4), Joey Cunningham (0-2).

SUBS: James Moore for Sean Moran (34 mins) and Eanna O'Neill for Arron Dunne (39 mins).

Referee- Ken Doyle