Mount Sion cruise into semis as second-half blitz buries Roanmore

Mount Sion 2-14 Roanmore 0-7

Roanmore offered stern enough resistance for half an hour with the stiff breeze to their backs in that opening half.

However, Mount Sion upped the tempo on the restart and a five minute scoring blitz had them all but out of sight.

It was a disappointing game that never measured up to expectations, and the champions could even afford the luxury of replacing Ken McGrath with 10 minutes remaining.

The challengers started brightly enough with David Byrne giving them a second minute lead from a free.

They remained in touch throughout the half against a less than fired up

opposition, but they had goalkeeper Trevor Flynn to thank after 20 minutes when his superlative stop denied Sean Ryan a seemingly certain goal.

They were unlucky to trail by a point, 0-6 to 0-5, at the break, but the floodgates opened within 20 seconds of the restart when Sion scored their first goal.

Brian Greene’s delivery found Eoin McGrath in glorious isolation on the fringe of the square and he gave Flynn no chance from point blank range.

Greene was again the provider three minutes later when Ryan goaled, and with Eoin Kelly and Michael White chipping in with points it was 2-8 to 0-5 with just five minutes of the half played.

Roanmore simply didn’t have the firepower to penetrate a Mount Sion defence in which Ken McGrath and Tony Browne did little more than they had to, and the game tamely petered out to its inevitable conclusion.

Scorers for Mount Sion: E. McGrath(1-3), M. White (0-6), S. Ryan (1-1), E. Kelly (0-3), D. Kelly (0-1).

Roanmore: D. Byrne (0-5); D. Murphy, S.Flynn (0-1) each.

MOUNT SION: I. O’Regan; J. O’Meara, A. Kirwan, K. Flynn; J. Cleere, K. McGrath, T. Browne; B. Flannery, R. McGrath; D. Kelly, B. Greene, E, Kelly; M. White, D. Ryan. E. McGrath.

Subs: F. O’Shea for D. Kelly; M. Frisby for R. McGrath; K. Stafford for K. McGrath.

ROANMORE: T. Flynn; S. O’Donoghue, E. Carew, D. Ryan; K. Gentleman, G. Quinlan, C. O’Byrne; D. Murphy, P. Murphy; C. Fanning, S. Murphy, A. Burns; L. O’Neill, S. Flynn, D. Byrne.

Referee: Pat Moore, Abbeyside;