Garvey’s Senior County Football Championship Round One: Austin Stacks 0-16 St Kierans 1-13 After Extra Time
St Kieran’s and Austin Stracks played out a hard fought and thrilling draw in Connolly Park in the opening round of the Garvey’s SuperValu County Senior Football Championship on Saturday evening.
Replay Fixed for Scartaglin
It has been confirmed that the replay will be on this Saturday evening, May 20th at 6.30pm in Scartaglin.
Austin Stacks were dealt a blow before the throw-in with Kieran Donaghy being ruled out from a starting position due to a niggling injury. The full forward berth on the team was filled by Fiachna Mangan.
St. Kierans got off to the perfect start with centre back Eamonn Kiely registering the first point after 24 seconds following a storming run through the middle.
This definitely lifted the divisional side and they dominated in all sectors for the first fifteen minutes.
They got their first goal chance in the sixth minute when Philip O’Connor, who was orchestrating the St Kieran’s attack from the 40, played an inch perfect pass behind the Austin Stack’s defence to the incoming Thomas Hickey.
Over the Crossbar
One on one Hickey opted to chip the advancing keeper and was unfortunate that the ball just went over the crossbar.
The goal did come shortly after in the tenth minute when, after a great pass from Thomas Hickey, full forward Vinny Horan produced a fine finish 1-2 to 0-0.
Austin Stacks produced their first attempt on goal after twelve minutes when they registered their first wide.
Their opening score came after fifteen minutes when Greg Horan kicked a great point from forty yards and into a stiff breeze.
Shortly afterwards the impressive David Mannix popped over a free to give Stacks their second point.
St Kierans then produced another great attack and Aidan Breen, who was covering every inch of Connolly Park, was at the end of it but was denied by a great save from David Hennessy.
With Great Determination
The ever threatening Thomas Hickey picked up the rebound and notched up another point. St Kierans controlled the remainder of the half and were playing with great determination as shown by wing forward Daniel Murphy. After producing the best point of the half, he chased back and blocked a certain score at the other end of the field.
Half time score: Austin Stacks 0-4 St Kieran’s 1-9.
Kieran Donaghy was introduced at half time by the home side and this produced immediate results with Stacks registering the first score of the second half inside the opening minute.
They were now playing with the aid of the elements and stared to play direct ball into Donaghy, who dominated in the air and created several scoring chances for his side.
St Kieran’s lost the influential Thomas Hickey to injury early in the second half and he was replaced by the Adam Barry.
Some Fine Scores
Stacks were now dominating – as St Kierans had in the first half – and were picking off some fine scores.
They were unlucky not to goal after twelve minutes when David Mannix hit the butt of the post. The half time lead was wiped out in the first twenty one minutes of the half with points from Mannix (4), Morgan, O’Donnell, Horan and Callaghan.
With ten minutes to go it looked like Stacks were going to prevail but to their credit St. Kieran’s kept playing and produced two points.
These came from a free by James Walsh after a foul on the impressive Philip O’Connor and a fine effort from Adam Barry after he was supplied by Seamus Scanlon.
Stacks responded with two points from David Mannix to leave the full-time score: Austin Stacks 0-14 St Kierans 1-13 and the teams heading for extra time.
Elements at their Backs
St. Kieran’s again started the brighter and were rewarded by two points from Tom McGolderick and James Walsh.
With the elements at their backs again they pressed hard but Kieran Donaghy produced a number of fine catches in his own square to avert any danger.
Stacks replied with a free from David Mannix and St. Kieran’s were ahead by one at the interval. Immediately after the restart Mannix again equalised with a free and this was the final score of the game.
Both sides gave it their all in the final minutes but could not create the winning score and they will have to do it all again in Scartaglin on Saturday evening at 6:30pm.
St Kieran’s had gone into this game as underdogs but produced a fine display. They will to go into the replay with justified confidence.
The management team of James Sheehan, Pat O’Shea and Kerry O’Sullivan have done a great job to produce this performance in their first outing. Final score Austin Stacks 0-16 St. Kieran’s 1-13.
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