Great win for Oldcastle in Kilberry

Oldcastle 4-09 Wolfe Tones 1-13

The persistent rain and darkness that accompanied the Oldcastle folk on their drive to Kilberry stayed put for the duration of the first half. It matched the mood for the first fifteen minutes of the match, with Wolfe Tone outclassing and outpacing Oldcastle all over the pitch and looking much the stronger, with four fine points on the scoreboard to no reply. Oldcastle’s luck changed when a lovely ball from Colin Hawdon found C.J. Healy who tipped it perfectly in to the waiting Rory McHugh who was lurking dangerously near the goals and smashed it into the back of the net. A nice point from Keith Connell, followed by a lovely curving free taken by Robbie Farrelly saw Oldcastle take the lead, before a great intercept by Paddy Rahill who got the ball in to Rory McHugh – lurking dangerously again! – for a second goal just minutes after his first. Wolfe Tones looked like they couldn’t believe what was happening, and while they were doing that Louis Colleran fed a great pass to Dylan Garrigan who flew up the wing to get it on to Terry Farrelly, to Keith Connell and on to Darren Hawdon who got it in to waiting brother Colin for another lovely goal! That was followed by a period of play which saw Keith Connell fire a super accurate ball in to the waiting Robbie Farrelly for yet another goal, to the great delight of the Oldcastle fans.

Robbie then converted a free, before Wolfe Tones made an effort to get back into the match, with three unanswered points, to bring the difference down to seven. Paddy Rahill was having none of that however, and lobbed a ball at the Wolfe Tones keeper, who had to fist it over his own crossbar to avoid another goal.

Robbie then converted again, before Wolfe Tones had a goal disallowed, deflating the last bit of wind from their sails. The final score of the half was a hard worked bit of football, from a Packie Kevin kick-out to Dylan Garrigan, on to Cian McPartland, back to Dylan who gave a lovely pass to Paddy Rahill moving at speed, on to Rory McHugh and finally to C.J. who kicked it straight between the posts, leaving it Oldcastle 4-06, Wolfe Tones 0-07 at the break.

Wolfe Tones took the first three points after the resumption, with Oldcastle finding it hard to even get the ball past the half-way line. It was twelve minutes into the half before Colin Hawdon got near the Wolfe Tones goals and was fouled: Robbie Farrelly converted. The opposition added another, Keith Connell responded with a nice score. Wolfe Tones converted two frees to bring them within seven of Oldcastle, but with only a couple of minutes left, Dylan Garrigan took off on a speedy run finished by a lovely point, and some fresh legs came on to help the cause. The referee seemed in no hurry to blow the whistle and let play go on for what seemed an eternity, leading to a scrap and a 30 metre free for Wolfe Tones.

With the Oldcastle lads wedged tighter on the goal-line than sardines in a can, amazingly the Wolfe Tones player found a spot and got the ball through for a goal. It was a consolation goal only however, the full-time whistle sounded soon after to signal a great win for the lads on a score of Oldcastle 4-09, Wolfe Tones 1-13.

Oldcastle: Packie Kevin, Terry Farrelly, Cian McPartland, Louis Colleran, Dylan Garrigan (0-01), Stephen Lawless, Darren Hawdon, Ger Reidy, Paddy Rahill (0-01), Keith Connell (0-02), C.J. Healy (0-01), Robbie Farrelly (1-04), Colin Hawdon (1-00), Rory McHugh (2-00), Lee Healy.

Subs: Oran O’Reilly, Cillian Connell, Conor Hetherton, Oran Mulvanny, Kyle Kavanagh, Conor Delaney.