St Pat's Castleisland guarantee Corn Ui Mhuirí progression with victory over dogged Abbey CBS
OVER-RELIANCE? St Pat's Castleisland Killian Dennehy, in action for Kerry, fights for the ball against Cork's Danny Miskella. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
It certainly wasn’t the prettiest of performances, but that won’t unduly bother St Pat’s Castleisland after they held off the dogged challenge of Abbey CBS in this Munster Colleges SFC (Corn Ui Mhuiri) Group 3 encounter at the Bog Garden in Rathkeale.
Played in foggy conditions throughout, the Kerry school, by recording their second successive victory, have guaranteed themselves a spot in at least the preliminary quarter-final stage of the competition. A notable achievement, one would have to say, in just their second season at this level.
Inspired by talismanic Kingdom minor midfielder Killian Dennehy, the winners, once they recovered from the sucker punch of conceding an early goal, were always in the ascendancy.
However, the resilient nature of the Tipperary side kept them in contention all afternoon.
Given that tremendous fillip of finding the net in the fifth minute for the game’s opening score – the quick thinking of centre-forward Sean O’Mahony creating the opening for top scorer Ciaran Kelly to finish convincingly – last year’s quarter-finalists maintained a foothold thereafter.
St Pat’s Castleisland, who lost two players to injury in the opening half, dusted themselves off from the green flag concession to move two points clear at the end of the first quarter (0-5 to 1-0), Dennehy notching four of those points (one from play).
Abbey CBS saw playmaker O’Mahony sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes for a trip on the afore-mentioned Dennehy but, despite the numerical disadvantage, they were still well in the mix at the interval, trailing by three points (0-8 to 1-2).
Both sides exchanged a brace of points on the resumption before St Pat’s Castleisland struck for the contest’s crucial score in the 38th minute. A Dennehy free was off target but, keeping the ball in play, Conor Cahill and Gerard Costello combined for Michael Horan to dispatch a rocket to the Abbey net.
Now six points to the good (1-10 to 1-4), Pa McCarthy’s charges should have been comfortable heading into the last 20 minutes, but that never turned out to be the case. Indeed, Abbey CBS refused to give up the ghost, outscoring their opponents (0-6 to 0-3) from there to the final whistle.
Kelly and O’Mahony combined for a tally of 1-9 for the losers, with corner-back Jaye Cilvinas lofting over the point of the game. For St Pat’s Castleisland, who were probably over-dependent on the towering Dennehy, a battle for top spot awaits in a fortnight against holders Mercy Mounthawk.
K Dennehy 0-8 (0-5fs), M Horan 1-1, C Cahill 0-2 (0-1f), O O’Connor, G Costello 0-1 each.
C Kelly 1-6 (0-3fs), S O’Mahony 0-3 (0-1f), J Cilvinas 0-1.
M Hickey (Cordal); T Kelliher (Cordal), E Brennan (Desmonds), R O’Connor (Currow); D Healy (Currow), O O’Connor (Currow), T Jones (Cordal); K Dennehy (Cordal), J Brosnan (Knocknagoshel); D Hickey (Knocknagoshel), J Bell (Knocknagoshel), C Walsh (Scartaglin); C Cahill (Knocknagoshel), G Costello (Cordal), M Horan (Scartaglin).
J Ryan (Currow) for Brosnan, inj (9), P Reidy (Ballymacelligott) for Kelliher, inj (27), C Martin (Ballymacelligott) for Jones (52), G Healy (Ballymacelligott) for D Hickey (59), A Burke (Desmonds) for Ryan (59).
C McGrath (Oola); S Cleary (Knockivalla Kickhams), M Bowes (Arravale Rovers), J Cilvinas (Arravale Rovers); D Ryan (Arravale Rovers), E Bonner (Galtee Rovers), D Bresnan (Arravale Rovers); A Ryan (Arravale Rovers), E Ryan (Arravale Rovers); S Bourke (Aherlow), S O’Mahony (Arravale Rovers), M Flanagan (Aherlow); A Webster (Arravale Rovers), C Kelly (Arravale Rovers), P Chapman (Aherlow).
J O’Keeffe (Arravale Rovers) for Flanagan (43), D Quigley (Arravale Rovers) for Bresnan (57), F Doyle (Solohead) for Webster (59).
J Murphy (Limerick).
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