Champions Naas survive major scare after dramatic final quarter
Moorefield's Liam Healy gets a hand in tackle Naas' Ryan Sinkey Photo: Sean Brilly
A rusty-looking Naas survived a major scare from Moorefield before emerging with the spoils in the opening Preliminary Round game in the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Thursday night.
The five-in-a-row chasing champions struggled in front of the posts in the opening half, despite dominating possession against a strong breeze; Philly McMahon’s side shooting just four scores from fourteen attempts, with goal attempts from Jack McKevitt and Neil Aherne coming back off the woodwork and Alex Beirne finding his radar completely off.
After Ryan Sinkey opened the scoring in the second minute, Naas went seventeen minutes without a score and Ciaran Kelly made them pay with two two-pointers, one from either side of the arc before Evan O’Brien added a point to give rank outsiders Moorefield a 0-5 to 0-1 lead.
But Naas would have been happy enough in the circumstances to go in at 0-5 apiece after finishing the half with a two-pointer from Sinkey and singles from McKevitt and substitute Paul McDermott.
Something of a collector’s item boosted the holders on the restart, a two-pointer from Brian Byrne getting the weekend of his wedding off to a good, if unexpected, start, but O’Brien was getting into his stride for Moorefield and his two points, the second tipped acrobatically over the bar by Naas ‘keeper Luke Mullins, made it 0-7 apiece after 39 minutes.
Naas finally got into the groove and five points in as many minutes seemed to set them up for a comfortable finish with Beirne finally finding the range with three points (one a ’45) and Sinkey and McDermott adding to those. Beirne might have found the net with the second of those points but was denied by a fine tip over by Tom Kinsella.
With the increasingly influential O’Brien pulling the gap back to four, McMahon called for county forward Darragh Kirwan off the bench and with his first touch he cannoned a shot off the crossbar from Paddy McDermott’s pass.
With ten minutes left Naas were rocked back on their heels with a goal out of nowhere. Mark Murray’s mishit two-point free attempt tempted Mullins out of his goals but he mis-judged it completely and veteran Adam Tyrrell gathered and buried a venomous shot to the roof of the unguarded net.
That made it a one-point game and Naas looked set to self-destruct further when McKevitt picked up a second yellow card from referee Niall Colgan and with numerical advantage Moorefield took the lead with two points from Murray.
A sliding doors moment followed, however. Tyrrell hit the post from a relatively straightforward chance; Naas broke down the field and Kevin Murnaghan was deemed to have fouled Paddy McDermott for a penalty which Beirne finished emphatically. That saw them ahead by 1-12 to 1-10 with four minutes left.
Back came Moorefield a minute later, though, and they opened up the champions far too easily for McMahon’s liking, no doubt, with Jason Phillips, Kelly and Eoin Meehan setting up O’Brien to palm home their second goal.
Straight away, though, Naas hit back with Kirwan, cool as you like, stroking over the equaliser from the left wing. With seconds left of normal time, Sinkey set up Quinn for the lead point (1-14 to 2-10).
Still, Moorefield had two chances to level it in injury time, but Phillips was perhaps the wrong man in the right place when shooting wide and then Tyrrell shot wide off his weaker right foot.
After those let-offs, Naas finally put the game to bed with Beirne’s quick free to Quinn setting up Kirwan. He seemed to lose the opportunity when spilling the ball but recovered to shoot to the net soccer-style and hand the holders a slightly flattering four-point win.
Luke Mullins; Rob Fitzgerald, Mark Maguire, Jamie McGuirk; Jack McKevitt 0-1, Brian Byrne 0-2 (tp), Paddy McDermott; Eoin Doyle, Brian Stynes; Kevin Cummins, Dermot Hanafin, Elliott Beirne; Neil Aherne, Alex Beirne 1-3 (1-0 pen,0-1 45), Ryan Sinkey 0-4 (1tp). Subs: Paul McDermott 0-2 for Stynes 27, Fintan Quinn 0-1 for Aherne 41, Cathal Daly for E Beirne 43, Darragh Kirwan 1-1 for Cummins 47, Tom Kelly for Paddy McDermott 57.
Tom Kinsella; Liam Callaghan, Mark Dempsey, Liam Healy; James Murray, Kevin Murnaghan, Luke Sweeney; Ryan Moore, Aaron Masterson; Eoin Meehan, Ciaran Kelly 0-4 (2tp), Mark Murray 0-2; Evan O’Brien 1-4 (1f), Dan O’Callaghan, Adam Tyrrell 1-0. Subs: Jason Phillips for O’Callaghan 41, Ryan Houlihan for J Murray 42.
Niall Colgan
Relive our score-by-score account of the match here
