Naas pull away in final quarter to book semi-final spot
Alex Beirne scored six points for Naas in their win over Johnstownbridge Photo: Sean Brilly
Four-in-a-row chasing Naas cruised into a semi-final meeting with Athy after a powerful second half performance with the wind at their back against Johnstownbridge in the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship at Manguard Park on Sunday afternoon.
Johnstownbridge elected, strangely, to play conservatively even with wind advantage in the opening half and they were made to pay for that as Naas turned around three points clear at the interval and ran in three goals in the second half on the way to a facile 21 point win.
After seven minutes of cat-and-mouse, wing back Ryan Rainey put Johnstownbridge ahead, but Naas got into their stride, playing into the strong wind. Neil Aherne fisted one over from the left before Alex Beirne landed a fine score from 35 metres.
A Darragh Kirwan free and a fisted Paddy McDermott point made it four points to one after 14 minutes before Johnstownbridge hit back with three of the next four points.
Shane Flynn landed the first of those and Paul Cribbin nailed two long-range frees with Beirne pointing a free from close range in response, but Johnstownbridge surprisingly played very conservatively despite the wind advantage, even conceding the Naas kick-out.
Beirne was in flying form and his 23rd minute score into the teeth of the wind was a magnificent effort and he added his fourth point a minute later from a free won by Aherne.
Dermot Hanafin availed of good work from Tom Browne to make it double scores (8-4) before Darragh Sloane, with a long-range effort that bounced over off the crossbar, narrowed the gap at the interval.
Half-Time: Naas 0-8 Johnstownbridge 0-5.
There was another ten minutes without a score at the start of the second half as Johnstownbridge huffed and puffed but after Kirwan and Josh O’Donoghue exchanged points, Naas struck for the crucial first goal.
Seán Hanafin set it up with a pass to corner back Mark Maguire, loitering with intent in front of the goal and the latter flicked home over goalkeeper Eoin Sheehan’s head.
Although Johnstownbridge hit back with an O’Donoghue point, it was one-way traffic after that with Naas hitting eight unanswered points before substitutes Brian Kane and Fintan Quinn put a gloss on the scoreline with goals in the final two minutes and Beirne added two injury time frees to bring his personal tally to six.
Luke Mullins 0-1 (f); Mark Maguire 1-0, Conor McCarthy, Rob Fitzgerald 0-1; Brian Byrne, Eoin Doyle, Eoin Lawlor; Ryan Sinkey 0-1, Seán Hanafin; Alex Beirne 0-6 (4fs), Tom Browne, Paddy McDermott 0-2; Darragh Kirwan 0-3 (2fs), Dermot Hanafin 0-3, Neil Aherne 0-2. SUBS: Paul McDermott for S Hanafin 47, Cathal Daly for Lawlor 48, Kevin Cummins for Browne 54, Fintan Quinn 1-0 for Kirwan 55, Brian Kane 1-0 for Sinkey 57.
Eoin Sheehan; Seán McKeon, Tomás Von Engelbrechten, Keith Cribbin; Shane Flynn 0-1, Aaron McNally, Ryan Rainey 0-1; Joey Higgins, Paul Cribbin 0-2 (2fs); Sam Doran, Darragh Sloane 0-1, Daniel Flynn; Josh O’Donoghue 0-2 (1f), Dean Kelly, Cathal McNally. SUB: Ronan Scanlon for C McNally 41, Fionn O’Grady for Kelly 47, Ian McKeon for Rainey 54, Mark Newman for S McKeon 58.
Conor Daly.
