County Senior Football League, Division 2, Round 6.
Kenmare Shamrocks 0-07, Templenoe 1-09.
Templenoe made the short trip to Fr Breen Park for the first meeting of Kenmare Shamrocks and Templenoe in the county league since 2016. A great team performance from start to finish saw Templenoe emerge victors by five points for our first win over our neighbours in seven years.
On a glorious evening with a big crowd in attendance to witness this local derby, the hosts chose to play with the wind for the first half. Kenmare Shamrocks also opening the scoring with a pointed free from Darren Allman, but few if any would have predicted that this would be the only time Kenmare would be in the ascendancy. The visitors responded with a point from play and one from a free through Stephen O’Sullivan. Then Darragh O’Connor was off target with a point effort for Kenmare, before the hosts were dealt with a sucker punch when John Moriarty was fouled just inside the big square and a penalty awarded. Stephen O’Sullivan stepped up and planted the ball in the net with aplomb. This was just the tonic needed to settle Templenoe and make believe that a win was possible. Midway through the first half Darragh O’Connor popped over Kenmare’s second point to make the score 0-02 to 1-02. Templenoe remained focused and continued to work very hard but were guilty of two wides to precede Kenmare’s next score from the boot of Kevin O’Sullivan. Soon after Dara Crowley added another for the hosts to reduce the deficit to the minimum. In the closing minutes of the first half Stephen O’Sullivan traded points with Darren Allman, before the game which was a sporting contest took an unexpected twist with Templenoe’s John Moriarty picking up his second yellow card to reduce the visitors to 14 players just on the stroke of half time.
Half Time Score: Kenmare Shamrocks 0-05, Templenoe 1-03
Templenoe were not noted for been a second half team in their recent outings, but this time it was to be very different with the visitors outscoring their opponents by six points to two with one player less on the field for a whole half hour. Stephen O’Sullivan who was having a whale of a game extended Templenoe’s lead to two points from a placed ball in the 39th minute after a series of missed opportunities by both sides. Then three points on the trot from Templenoe followed with Stephen O’Sullivan (2) and Patrick Clifford firing over inspirational scores to make the score 0-05 to 1-07 after 44 minutes of play. Nonetheless, there was still time for Kenmare Shamrocks to do what they did many times in the past and turn the contest and Kevin O’Sullivan did get one back with a point from play in the 51st minute. With time running out David Hallissey did find a bit of a rare opening in the Templenoe defence, however his shot found the side netting. Aidan Crowley steadied the ship for Templenoe with a white flag to restore their lead to six points with just five minutes of normal time remaining, before David Hallissey split the posts for Kenmare. The hosts still needed two goals, but on this occasion it was to prove a bridge too far for Kenmare Shamrocks with Templenoe closing out the game without any late scares.
Final Score: Kenmare Shamrocks 0-07, Templenoe 1-09
Scorers:
Kenmare Shamrocks: Darren Allman 0-02 (2f), Kevin O’Sullivan 0-02, Darragh O’Connor 0-01, David Hallissey 0-01, Dara Crowley 0-01.
Templenoe: Stephen O’Sullivan 1-07 (1-00p) (4f), Aidan Crowley 0-01, Patrick Clifford 0-01.
Teams:
Kenmare Shamrocks: Kieran Fitzgibbon, Dara Crowley, Tommy O’Sullivan, Cian O’Sullivan, Shane O’Sullivan, Tommy Cronin, Jamie O’Regan, Tom O’Sullivan, James McCarthy, David Ciuciu, David Hallissey, Jimmy Lehane, Darren Allman, Kevin O’Sullivan, Darragh O’Connor.
Subs used: Conor Adams, Eoghan McCarthy, Kane Reidy, Liam Palmer.
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Michael Hallissey, Kieran O’Neill, Mark Casey, Ciaran Crowley, Joseph Sheahan, Martin Reilly, Sean Sheehan, Gavin Crowley, Stephen O’Sullivan, Patrick Clifford, Colin Crowley, Aidan Crowley, John Moriarty, Daniel Crowley
Subs used: Kieran McCarthy, Hugh Granville.
