Taaffe bags hat-trick as Raheens win
Jack Taaffe scored a hat-trick of goals for Raheens in their win over Carbury Photo: Sean Brilly
A hat-trick of goals from full-forward Jack Taaffe embellished a comfortable win for Raheens over old rivals Carbury in the opening game of Group C of the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship at Manguard Park on Saturday afternoon.
It was another chastening afternoon for Carbury who must now be looking over their shoulders at a potential relegation battle with games to come against local rivals Johnstownbridge and St Laurence’s. Two separate spells of over 25 minutes without a score and an over-reliance on Eoin Cully up front saw them offer little resistance to Raheens.
The winners had the benefit of the wind in the opening half, but they had shot three of their seven first half wides before Paddy Woodgate opened the scoring after three minutes.
Immediately afterwards, however, in their first break outside their own half, Carbury manufactured a goal with Cully getting in behind the defence for a neat finish past David MacPartlin.
Jack Smith followed up with a point off the outside of the boot, but Raheens settled again with a score from Shane McSweeney and on 21 minutes Gavin Thompson brought the gap down to the minimum (1-1 to 0-3).
The powerful Jack Taaffe at full-forward swung the game in favour of the Raheens side when he dispossessed Jimmy Dunne inside the ‘D’ and shrugged off the attentions of Tommy Gill before finishing past Declan Conroy for a goal.
Taaffe followed that up with a quickfire point from 20 metres and Fionn Tully added another in injury time to leave Raheens four points clear at the interval with Carbury having failed to score since the sixth minute.
Half-Time: Raheens 1-5 Carbury 1-1.
Carbury broke that spell early in the second half with two Cully points from play but that was a short-lived recovery. Niall Cramer went forward for a Raheens point on 39 minutes before substitutes Shane Crowley, from an acute angle, and Conor Kelly, stretched Raheens’ lead back out to five points.
With nine minutes remaining Taaffe put the game beyond doubt, turning the ball home from close range after Conor Kelly had been denied by Conroy.
Paddy Woodgate added a free before James Kelly broke another long scoreless run for Carbury.
In injury time, Taaffe completed his hat-trick with a superb finish to the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area before Oisín Milmoe grabbed a consolation goal for a well-beaten Carbury.
David MacPartlin; Niall Cramer 0-1, Tom Earley, Shane McSweeney 0-1; Conor Earley, Jack Hamill, Graham Waters; Matthew Betts-Symonds, Dara Crowley; Daniel Hamill, Paddy Woodgate 0-2 (1f), Luke O’Donovan; Fionn Tully 0-1, Jack Taaffe 3-1, Gavin Thompson 0-1. SUBS: Niall Dolan for F Tully HT, Conor Kelly 0-1 for McSweeney HT, Shane Crowley 0-1 for Hamill 43, Colm Power for Thompson 44, Killian Thompson for C Earley 55
Declan Conroy; Jimmy Dunne, Paul Fleming, Brian Milmoe; Ciaran McKeon, Stephen McKeon, Tommy Gill; Alan Kearney, David Kelly; Jack Smith 0-1, JP Gill, Jack Cully; Eoin Cully 1-2, Conor Gallagher, Brian O’Flaherty. SUBS: Justin Reilly for Fleming (temp 20-25) and for S McKeon 29, Oisín Milmoe 1-0 for JP Gill 39, James Carey for Fleming 43, James Kelly 0-1 for Dunne 55, Dale Redmond for C McKeon 55
Raymond Kelly
