House trump Towers thanks to deadly Didier
Didier Cordonnier scored six points for Two Mile House as they booked a quarter-final Photo: Sean Brilly
It was a tale of two goalkeepers at Cedral St Conleth’s Park as Two Mile House deservedly overcame Round Towers to clinch a Quarter Final place in the National Electrical Wholesale Intermediate Football Championship.
While David Craddock kept a clean sheet and pulled off a string of first-class saves in goal for Two Mile House, county ‘keeper Didier Cordonnier top-scored with 0-6 at the other end thanks to three two-pointers including a wonderfully struck free from around 50 metres that put paid to a late comeback from a hugely disappointing Towers outfit.
Towers, among the favourites for the title before it started, only managed three points in the opening 47 minutes in a game that didn’t rise to any great highs. They trailed by 0-10 to 0-3 at that stage but threatened to pull off grand theft larceny as a two-pointer double in the 53rd and 54th minutes from a Jay O’Brien free and one from play from Neil Scanlon put them within two points of their dominant opponents.
They should have at least levelled it but further two-point attempts from frees from O’Brien and Scanlon went astray when the momentum was with them and with 60 minutes on the clock Cordonnier landed the score of the game with that late orange flag.
That stretched the gap to four and although Scanlon and O’Brien landed a free each in five minutes of injury time, Adam Conneely rounded off the scoring with a fisted point for the winners.
A first half that won’t live long in the memory saw Two Mile House, playing with the breeze into the Kilcullen end, dominate possession but fail to really press home the advantage, although three two-pointers helped them to a four-point half-time advantage (0-7 to 0-3).
Goalkeeper Craddock opened the scoring with a long range free, which DJ Flynn negated for Round Towers but two two-pointers in the space of two minutes from Cordonnier, playing at centre-forward, and one from Tony O’Connor, should have given Two Mile House the confidence to press on.
Their shooting was letting them down, however, and despite having very little possession, Towers moved back to within two points by the 19th minute thanks to points from a Jay O’Brien free and one from play from the hard-working Jamie Flynn.
Five minutes from the interval, Cordonnier landed his second two-pointer to stretch the gap to four at the interval, though Towers were denied by a superb double save from Craddock, first denying Stephen Comerford at close range before clawing away a follow-up effort from Mikey Murphy that took a deflection on its way to the ‘keeper.
Towers needed a fast start to the second half, but Craddock denied them again when diving low to stop O’Brien’s effort and it was Two Mile House who got the scoreboard moving again with three points in a row from Jack Collins (two) and substitute Aidan Casey to move seven clear.
Corner back Jack O’Neill’s 47th minute point ended a barren spell of almost thirty minutes for the Kildare town side, but their purple patch thereafter was all too brief for a team with such aspirations and Two Mile House deservedly held out to clinch a last eight clash with Rathangan.
David Craddock 0-1 (f); PJ Cashman, Peter Kelly, Tom Hennebery; Andrew May, William Burke, Andrew Cregg; Marcus Kiely, Tony O’Connor 0-2 (tp); Adam Conneely 0-1, Didier Cordonnier 0-6 (2tp, 1tpf), Jack Collins 0-2; Gavin Burke, Conor Keogh, Chris Healy. Subs: Aidan Casey 0-1 for Keogh h-t, Michael McLoughlin for Gavin Burke 45, Glenn Burke for Kiely 50, Brian Collins for Jack Collins 58.
Colin English; Jack O’Neill 0-1, Mike Joyce, Padraig Daly; David O’Neill, Mikey Kelly, Mikey Murphy; Jamie Flynn 0-1, Ben Ryan; Jason O’Brien, Jay O’Brien 0-4 (1tpf,2fs), DJ Flynn 0-1; Sean Glennon, Cathal Daly, Stephen Comerford. Subs: Max Cosgrove for Glennon 39, Hugh McDonald for D O’Neill 43, Evan Flynn for Jason O’Brien 43, Neil Scanlon 0-3 (1tp,1f) for DJ Flynn 50, Cian Walsh for Comerford 60+1.
Ken Doyle
