03-11-2012
Listowel 0-08
Tarbert 0-05
A typical North Kerry Championship day! As the wind howled and rain swept around Con Brosnan Park, Moyvane prior to throw in, old foes Listowel Emmets and Tarbert went head to head in this preliminary round of the 2012 Bernard O’Callaghan Memorial North Kerry Senior Football Championship. A tuppance for the thoughts of the recently married Tadhg Kennelly as both teams ran to the sanctuary of the dressing rooms after their pre match warm ups.
Seventy odd minutes later of tough, uncompromising action and Emmets had negotiated their way through to a quarter final meeting with Castleisland Desmonds. Their victory came in no small part from the contributions of the Kennelly brothers, Noel and Tadhg, and the solidity of both county panellist Brian McGuire and Brendan Quiney in defence. Fellow county member Shane Enright tried gallantly for Tarbert along with the evergreen John O’Connell in midfield and Jimmy Holly and captain Kevin Wren in defence.
Both sides made changes to their selected teams prior to throw in with Ambrose Lanigan and Shane Enright coming in for Tarbert and David Sheehy for Listowel. Considering the slippery underfoot conditions and with possession at a premium it was no surprise that both sides deployed a sweeper system from the off. Blanket defence was order of the day with Tadhg Kennelly being used as a lone forward for Listowel for the majority of the first half and Paddy O’Connell similarly for Tarbert.
Noel Kennelly and Conor Cox had wides for Listowel before Cox finally opened the scoring from a close in free in the 9th minute. Matters then became a bit heated in the 10th minute with a number of players involved in a skirmish in the Tarbert full back line and when referee Paudie Keane cooled matters down, both Tadhg Kennelly and Jason Wren were cautioned. The opening score was quickly cancelled out by a Paddy O’Connell free in the 13th minute and Tarbert put their noses in front in the 18th minute with a long range point from midfielder John Connell, the ball going over off the upright and then the crossbar. Noel Kennelly tied up matters for Listowel with a further free in the 25th minute and at this juncture a ding dong battle was ensuing and the teams could not be more evenly matched.
Kevin Enright of Tarbert was lucky to only receive a yellow card in the 19th minute for an off the ball incident with Michael Lynch. Listowel then received what seemed a serious blow in the 28th minute when Tadhg Kennelly, who had been operating out in the half forward line at this juncture, had to be substituted and he was replaced by Brian Murphy. Tarbert missed the opportunity to take the lead once more when they were wide from a free in the 29th minute but corner forward Gerald O’Sullivan made no mistake in the 31st minute and it looked like Tarbert would take the slenderest of leads to the half time break. However, in the 5th minute of injury time, Listowel substitute Brian Murphy kicked over their first score of the half from play and both teams retreated to the heat of the dressingroom with the scores tied.
On the resumption Tarbert had to substitute their keeper Michael Carrig who had been injured during Listowel’s last score of the first half and who had been receiving attention for the majority of the half time break. With conditions so poor it was good to see the ambulance personnel on hand to give the injured player the necessary attention required.
Listowel got in to their stride straight from the throw in of the second half and Noel Kennelly pushed them ahead once more within 2 minutes of the restart with a close in free from the hands. Following wide’s from a free by Gerald O’Sullivan and from play by John O’Connell, Tarbert again responded and in the 37th minute Shane Enright took a pass from a quick free and popped over Tarberts second point from play from an acute angle.
Tarbert seemed to be getting the upper hand at this stage and had introduced Sean McGinley for Conor Flavin and Danny Wren Kevin for Kevin Enright to try and drive this advantage home. McGinley was very unluncky with his first touch of the game when his attempted score from almost the half way line came back off the upright and sailed harmlessly wide.
Listowel, realising that the men in red and black were starting to get on top, needed to respond and so they did in 41st minute with a further pointed free from Conor Cox which pushed them one point ahead once more. With the crowd gearing up for a grand stand last quarter to the game, the major turning point came when, following a foul on Noel Kennelly which led to another bout of pushing and shoving, Tarbert’s Shaun McGinley received his marching orders for a second yellow card. Tadhg Kennelly came back on for his brother Noel after this incident and within four minutes he was showing all his poise to push Listowel two points ahead with a further point from play.
This was the first time in the game that there was more than one score between the sides and Tarbert now knew that they needed to pull out all the stops in order to get back in to the game. Showing typical spirit they continued to drive at the Listowel defence but a combination of the one man deficit, the difficult underfoot conditions and Listowel funnelling the majority of their players back, they were unable to breakthrough the Listowel rearguard. Gerald O’Sullivan missed the opportunity to halve the deficit in the 52nd minute with a wide from a further free, and when Noel Kennelly returned to the fray in the 57thminute for full forward Paudie Buckley, both he and brother Tadhg closed out the game with further points from play in 59th and 60thminutes. Try as hard as Tarbert did in injury time to get am equalising goal they were thwarted by the rock solid Emmets defence.
Man of the Match: Brian McGuire, Listowel Emmets
No comments:
Post a Comment