Round Towers ease into quarter-finals as Rags slump to another defeat
Mark Byrne (Round Towers) and Robbie Lee (Kilcullen) contest possession Photo: Michael Anderson
A rampant Round Towers secured their spot in the quarter-finals of the National Electrical Wholesalers Intermediate Football Championship with a nineteen-point dismantling of a poor Kilcullen outfit at Manguard Park on Saturday evening.
Four second half goals put a gloss on the scoreline, but Towers looked nailed-on winners once a return of 1-7 without reply from the 19th minute through to half-time had burned off a bright Kilcullen start.
Seán Glennon and Dan Coughlan exchanged early points before raiding wing-back Seán Gleeson and Max Cosgrave put Towers two ahead. They could have been further ahead had Cormac Barker not saved smartly from Matthew Kelly with Jay O’Brien sweeping the rebound wide soccer-style.
That let-off boosted Kilcullen and Coughlan’s free and one from play by hard-working full-forward Turlough Donnelly brought them level by the fourteenth minute.
Kerryman Donagh McKivergan then landed a two-point free on the quarter-hour mark to put the Rags two ahead 0-5 to 0-3 as they chased their first win of a disappointing campaign.
Towers upped the ante however in the remainder of the first half with Ben Ryan, Neil Scanlon, Glennon and Gleeson outstanding. Goalkeeper Colin English landed a ’45 before the talismanic O’Brien added two points from play. Two from Scanlon and one from corner-forward Charlie Mahony made it six points in six minutes.
O’Brien rattled the crossbar with a rasper before adding a point from a free before a penned in Kilcullen conceded the first, crucial goal. Kelly won Barker’s kickout, found O’Brien inside and his offload sent Scanlon through to finish to the net. That left Towers 1-10 to 0-5 ahead at the interval.
O’Brien added a single and then a two-pointer after the break on the way to an eight-point haul, sandwiching a Barker ’45. Then Gleeson’s blistering run down the left wing and cut inside laid the groundwork for Mahony to finish their second goal to the net on 41 minutes.
Ryan added a point from close range before Donnelly’s two-point free gave Kilcullen some respite, but Towers were hungry for goals at this stage and would add three more.
Mahony, proving himself a supreme poacher, palmed one to the net from Scanlon’s pass and O’Brien followed that up with his second two-pointer from play to make it 3-16 to 0-8.
Jack Cronin responded with a Kilcullen point and McKivergan with his second two-point free, but Towers weren’t finished raising green flags yet. A piercing Ryan run set up Mahony for his hat-trick with six minutes remaining and after Jack Jordan pointed for Kilcullen, a lovely O’Brien dummy featured in the move that set up Cosgrave for goal number five three minutes from the end.
Jamie Buckley almost struck for a consolation goal for Kilcullen, but English denied him from close range to concede an unconverted ’45.
The Rags now head into the ‘B’ championship, and many will have them among the favourites for the drop into Junior, while Towers move forward into the last eight of the A championship with their confidence no doubt rising.
They’ll have much tougher challenges ahead.
Colin English 0-1 (’45); Dee Kelly, Jack O’Neill, Hugh McDonald; Sean Gleeson 0-1, Stephen Comerford, Ben Ryan 0-1; Cian Walsh, Matthew Kelly; Max Cosgrave 1-1, Sean Glennon 0-1, Mark Byrne; Charlie Mahony 3-1, Jay O’Brien 0-8 (2tps,1f), Neil Scanlon 1-2 (0-1f).
Danny Kelly for Byrne 47, Ollie Deller for Scanlon 49, Aaron Geoghegan for Walsh 49, Keith Clancy for O’Neill 54, Liam McDonald for Gleeson 56.
Cormac Barker 0-1 (’45); Daragh Burke, Jack Dooley, Jack Redmond; Eddie O’Loughlin, Scott Fleming, Robbie Lee; Seán Knight, Ciaran Melinn; Seán Hurley, Donagh McKivergan 0-4 (2 tpfs), Jack Jordan; Ciaran O’Brien, Turlough Donnelly 0-3 (1tpf), Dan Coughlan 0-2 (1f).
Paul Bell for Fleming 24, Tim Carey and Jack Cronin 0-1 for Redmond and Coughlan HT, Jack Jordan 0-1 for Hurley 47, Jamie Buckley for Donnelly 47.
Frank Delaney.
