Roinn A Final St Canice's v Thomastown
16/11/2013
Nowlan Park
Canices 2-5 Thomastown 0-1
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Today we won the Roinn A football title in Nowlan Park for the first time in three years, defeating a game Thomastown side in search of a "three in a row".
We finished the year unbeaten, and today was the toughest test we got. Captain Cian Rowe lost the toss, and we faced the cool breeze in the opening half, attacking the town end. Thomastown opened brightly, and converted their opening chance with a good point. For the next 15 minutes, we played our best football of the match, and scored 4 really good points - all 4 scores coming as the result of neat team work, and from 4 different players: Cillian Hackett, Timmy Clifford , Kevin Fitzpatrick and Liam Moore.
The last score of the half was an important one as a three point lead would have in no way reflected our dominance. A good shot from Mikey Clifford, after a handpass from Dacel, was deflected into the net by an unfortunate Thomastown defender, and this left us 1-4 to 0-1 up at half time.
The second half was a story of superb Thomastown defending, and almost total dominance by our lads. The only problem was we couldn't get those scores that would have made life comfortable for us. When Thomastown did get down the field, they met our mean defence. Cian was super on goal and made one point blank save at a crucial second half stage. Padraig, Ronan and David were rarely if ever beaten, and Dacel, ably assisted by Patrick and Niall were unstoppable. Indeed, many thought Niall was man of the match!
Liam and Shay both did well at midfield, keeping the ball moving towards the forwards throughout. Up front, we had 6 class forwards( 3 of whom will be with us next year, and one the next two years!). Timmy led the attack brilliantly, with cousin Mikey and Kevin doing well on the wings. Eoin and Cillian were in top form, while Aaron was outstanding. Lots thought that he too was man of the match, and how fitting that it was his long ball that deceived the Thomastown keeper to seal victory late in the second half. The only other score of the half had come earlier when Kevin had cut through to score his second point of the day.
We got to introduce some subs late in the game, but ref Eamon Mansfield unfortunately blew up three minutes early and denied us the opportunity to give all subs a run.
In 2011, we lost the final to Thomastown when going for 10 in a row! Could today be the start of another run??
C Rowe
D Delahunty P Moylan R Lavelle
P O Shea D Fwamba N Rowe
S McEvoy L Moore
K Fitzpatrick(0-2) T Clifford (0-1)M Clifford(1-0)
K Hackett(0-1) A Murphy (1-0)E Dalton(0-1)
I O Keeffe. D Conway L Morrissey R O Connor D Kelliher
E O Neill K Phelan S Maher D Walsh
Nowlan Park
Canices 2-5 Thomastown 0-1
Back on top
Today we won the Roinn A football title in Nowlan Park for the first time in three years, defeating a game Thomastown side in search of a "three in a row".
We finished the year unbeaten, and today was the toughest test we got. Captain Cian Rowe lost the toss, and we faced the cool breeze in the opening half, attacking the town end. Thomastown opened brightly, and converted their opening chance with a good point. For the next 15 minutes, we played our best football of the match, and scored 4 really good points - all 4 scores coming as the result of neat team work, and from 4 different players: Cillian Hackett, Timmy Clifford , Kevin Fitzpatrick and Liam Moore.
The last score of the half was an important one as a three point lead would have in no way reflected our dominance. A good shot from Mikey Clifford, after a handpass from Dacel, was deflected into the net by an unfortunate Thomastown defender, and this left us 1-4 to 0-1 up at half time.
The second half was a story of superb Thomastown defending, and almost total dominance by our lads. The only problem was we couldn't get those scores that would have made life comfortable for us. When Thomastown did get down the field, they met our mean defence. Cian was super on goal and made one point blank save at a crucial second half stage. Padraig, Ronan and David were rarely if ever beaten, and Dacel, ably assisted by Patrick and Niall were unstoppable. Indeed, many thought Niall was man of the match!
Liam and Shay both did well at midfield, keeping the ball moving towards the forwards throughout. Up front, we had 6 class forwards( 3 of whom will be with us next year, and one the next two years!). Timmy led the attack brilliantly, with cousin Mikey and Kevin doing well on the wings. Eoin and Cillian were in top form, while Aaron was outstanding. Lots thought that he too was man of the match, and how fitting that it was his long ball that deceived the Thomastown keeper to seal victory late in the second half. The only other score of the half had come earlier when Kevin had cut through to score his second point of the day.
We got to introduce some subs late in the game, but ref Eamon Mansfield unfortunately blew up three minutes early and denied us the opportunity to give all subs a run.
In 2011, we lost the final to Thomastown when going for 10 in a row! Could today be the start of another run??
C Rowe
D Delahunty P Moylan R Lavelle
P O Shea D Fwamba N Rowe
S McEvoy L Moore
K Fitzpatrick(0-2) T Clifford (0-1)M Clifford(1-0)
K Hackett(0-1) A Murphy (1-0)E Dalton(0-1)
I O Keeffe. D Conway L Morrissey R O Connor D Kelliher
E O Neill K Phelan S Maher D Walsh