Cribbin's class cuts through Larries
Paul Cribbin scored five points in Johnstownbridge's win over St Laurences Photo : Piotr Kwasnik
Paul Cribbin rolled back the clock to enliven a drab Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship Group C encounter in Manguard Park on Saturday afternoon.
Cribbin, back from injury, weighed in with five points, four of those from play, but Johnstownbridge barely had to raise a gallop against a St Laurence’s team who seem destined to be involved in the relegation battle again this year having escaped the trapdoor in last year’s final.
Cribbin opened the scoring in the second minute before TJ Nolan landed the first of two first-half frees for St Laurence’s on eight minutes.
It would be twenty minutes before they scored again with Johnstownbridge adding 1-5 without reply to take a commanding lead. Josh O’Donoghue started that run of scores, quickly followed by a lovely score from Darragh Sloane with the outside of the boot.
Daniel Flynn angled over a point from the left corner before Cribbin ended a good move with this second point. He followed that up with a free and in the 21st minute a Flynn effort was saved by Paul Clynch in the Larries goal, but Ronan Scanlon followed up to find the net.
After Nolan landed a free from 45 metres, Kevin Eustace registered St Laurence’s only score from play in the opening half but O’Donoghue’s injury time free from close range sent Johnstownbridge in at half-time comfortably ahead by seven points.
Half-Time: Johnstownbridge 1-7 St Laurence’s 0-3 The second half produced only seven scores, with only one coming after the 45 minute mark, when O’Donoghue rounded off the scoring with a free deep in injury time. Before that Sloane with a beauty and two classy Cribbin efforts had embellished Johnstownbridge’s score with Felix Lawlor and Nolan (frees) and Pádraig O’Neill (mark) scoring for a disappointing St Laurence’s outfit.
Eoin Sheehan; Sean McKeon, Tomas Von Englebrechten, Ryan Rainey; Paul Cribbin 0-5 (1f), Keith Cribbin, Jack Dargan; Joey Higgins, Ronan Scanlon 1-0; Luke O’Connor, Darragh Sloane 0-2, Daniel Flynn 0-1; Josh O’Donoghue 0-3 (2fs), Fionn O’Grady, Cathal McNally. SUBS: Aaron McNally for O’Grady 54, Ian McKeon for Sloane 59
Paul Clynch; James Donnelly, Niall Clynch, Michael O’Sullivan; Brendan Keatley, Oisín Grufferty, Niall O’Connor; Jason McHugh, Kevin Eustance 0-1; Jack Dargan, TJ Nolan 0-3 (3fs), Con Killeen; James Donnelly; Luke Gorman, Darragh Miley, Tom Dooley. SUBS: Felix Lawlor 0-1 (f) for Killeen 29, Pádraig O’Neill 0-1 (m) for Dargan 39, Eoin Curley for Miley 43, Ciaran O’Sullivan for Keatley 59.
Paddy McDermott
