County Senior Football League, Division 2, Round 6.

Templenoe 1-13, Firies 1-21.

Templenoe suffered their fourth county league defeat in a row at home to Firies on Sunday afternoon. This result puts Templenoe on shaky ground, but they do have four county league games remaining in a very competitive Division 2.

The game was played in Sunny conditions and the hosts started well with brothers Gavin and Colin Crowley opening the scoring. Firies countered with scores from Darragh Donoghue and Cian Doe, before Adrian Spillane gave the Templenoe the edge at the end of the first quarter to make it 0-03 to 0-02. But in between Templenoe were dealt a significant blow when Teddy Doyle had to retire injured.

James Horgan tied the scores again, before substitute Patrick Clifford went through on goal and he made no mistake with his finish for Templenoe’s first goal in four games. In the ensuring passages of play, Templenoe tagged on two more points courtesy of Aidan Crowley and Hugh Granville, while the visitors had white flags from James Horgan, Cian Doe and Darragh Donoghue. Then in the 30th minute Niall Donohoue was vigilant to the ball coming off the upright and he was perfectly positioned to bury the ball past Mark Looney in the Templenoe goal. This put Firies ahead for the first time and though Templenoe did equalize just before the interval through Mark Casey, it meant that Firies would go in the happier at the break, with the visitors also having the wind advantage for the second half to come.

Half Time Score: Templenoe 1-06, Firies 1-06.

Firies somewhat blew Templenoe out of the water in the third quarter, outscoring their opponents by eight points to two. Their purple patch started with James Horgan (2) and Cian Doe splitting the posts. Martin Reilly briefly interrupted their flow with a point for the visitors, but then the visitors started to turn on the style with Cian Doe landing the first of his 3 two pointers. Further scores followed from Darragh Brosnan and Niall Donohue. Aidan Crowley and Cian Doe traded points to leave score at 1-08 to 1-14 at the end of the third quarter.

Templenoe tried hard to bring themselves back into the game and two pointed frees from Micheál O'Mahony, after Cian Doe had put Firies further ahead did reduce the margin to five points. But any hopes of a comeback were short lived with Cian Doe continuing to shoot the lights out, while his partner in crime James Horgan was unerring throughout with his free taking. Cian Doe added 2 more two more pointers to bring his personal tally up to an impressive eleven points. Templenoe had consolation scores from Adrian Spillane, Colin Crowley and Mark Casey, before Diarmuid O’Mahony got his name on the score sheet for the visitors with their last play.

Final Score: Templenoe 1-13, Firies 1-21.

Scorers:

Templenoe: Patrick Clifford 1-00, Mark Casey 0-02, Adrian Spillane 0-02, Colin Crowley 0-02, Aidan Crowley 0-02 (1f), Micheál O'Mahony 0-02 (2f), Gavin Crowley 0-01, Martin Reilly 0-01, Hugh Granville 0-01.

Firies: Cian Doe 0-11 (3tp) (2f), James Horgan 0-05 (4f) (1 45), Niall Donohue 1-01, Darragh Donoghue 0-02, Diarmaid O’Mahony 0-01, Darragh Brosnan 0-01

Teams:

Templenoe: Mark Looney, Mark Casey, Kieran O’Neill, Kieran McCarthy, Gavin Crowley, Martin Reilly, Ciaran Crowley, Sean Sheehan, Adrian Spillane ©, Micheál O'Mahony, Colin Crowley, John Spillane, Hugh Granville, Aidan Crowley, Teddy Doyle.

Subs Used: Patrick Clifford, Jack Wiggins, Marc Foley, John Moriarty, Caoilte O’hUrdail.

Firies: Brian McCarthy, Chris Palmer, Diarmuid Brosnan, Brian O’Leary, Dairmuid O’Mahony, Niall Donohoe, Sean Cooper, Darragh Brosnan, James Horgan, Darragh Donoghue, Pat Daly, TJ Palmer, James O’Donoghue, Cian Doe, Mike Daly.

Subs Used: Conall Mahony, Danny Brosnan, John Henderson, Conor O’Sullivan, Aaron Flynn.