St Mary’s Regain Composure To Advance After Ugly Start
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Liam McMonagle bursts forward for St Mary's. TT057794.
St Mary's, Edenderry 2-6. Ard Scoil na Trionoide, Athy 0-4.
ST Mary's, Edenderry recovered their composure after a very ugly and unseemly start to get the better of a mediocre Ard Scoil na Trionoide, Athy side in the Leinster Colleges Senior Football 'A' Championship in Edenderry on Wednesday last.
Played in front of a large crowd of students, and adults, proceedings threatened to get out of hand early on as referee Sean Carroll was forced to brandish four yellow cards before the ball had even been thrown in - To St Mary's Philip Foy, Daniel Grehan and Mark Nolan and Athy's Pascal Connell.
Foy, Grehan and Connell had got themselves into a pushing and shoving match while lining up for the throw in while Nolan was yellow carded moments later after tripping John Merrins. Nolan's actions prompted an exasperated Carroll to summons both managers and play finally got underway after they spoke to their teams.
As it was, that ugly niggle remained for a few minutes and Carroll unsurprisingly lost patience, brandishing a red card to Athy's David O'Toole in the fourth minte after he caught Conor McNamee with a high elbow.
Ard Scoil na Trionoide had been the better point up to that stage - They had taken the lead with an Alan Farrell point and even after O'Toole's dismissal, they continued to enjoy the majority of play.
Michael Kelly put them two in front after nine minutes but it was all downhill for the visitors after this. Playing with the wind on their backs, St Mary's soon made their numerical advantage count and they made it count on the score board.
A very soft goal allowed St Mary's grab the initiative - First Athy goalie, Shaun Conway got away with handling on the ground as he tried to gather a Mark Nolan ball and then he lost possession, allowing the grateful and disbelieving Ryan Caffrey to tap the ball into an unguarded net.
The Edenderry students played their best football after this with Conor McNamee, Sean Moriarty, who was outstanding in this spell, and Liam McMonasle all pointing in a sustained spell of pressure.
Now concentrating on playing football rather than 'extra curricular' activities, St Mary's were a vastly different side. Very impressive sub, Rory McNamee and Liam McMonagle added points before Edenderry sealed it with a soft injury time goal - Mark Nolan's first shot was brilliantly saved by Shaun Conway but Nolan had the time and space to manufacture a goal from the rebound and put them 2-5 to 0-2 ahead at the break.
With the wind to come, it was by no means irretrievable for Athy but they lacked the fire power to cause St Mary's any really anxious moments.
For a few minutes, they threatened to make it interesting - Niall Kelly and John Merrins (Free) got quick points at the start of the second half and St Mary's Philip Foy was sent off after five minutes for a second yellow card.
St Mary's, however, were able to defend in numbers, sacrificing their attacking potency in a bid to ease across the finish line. It worked as Athy could find no way through a massed defence and while St Mary's only second half point came from the boot of Liam McMonagle with eleven minutes left, it was more than enough for them to close out the deal.
The second half was a particularly poor affair with heavy rain making under foot conditions very tricky but this didn't bother St Mary's as they remained comfortably in the driving seat.
It was by no means a spectacular performance by St Mary's but they will still be pleased with their win after that inauspicious start. Sean Moriarty, Conor McNamee, Daniel Grehan, Ryan Caffrey, Liam McMonagle and Rory McNamee were best for them on the day.
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