ACL Division 3 – Keady Michael Dwyers V. Collegeland O’Rahilly’s

Keady Michael Dwyers: 0.10 - Collegeland O’Rahilly’s: 3.05

McGleenan Park played host to this league match between top-of-the-table Keady and bottom-of-the-table Collegelands on Friday night where the Dwyers were looking to pick up their seventh consecutive league win and put distance between themselves and St.Peters in second place. However football is rarely so straight-forward and it was the visitors who battled their way to an unexpected four point win in a game where it was the three goals conceded by Keady that did the damage.

Keady started the game well and within minutes of the throw-in the Dwyers were two points in front thanks to fine scores from Paul Gollogly and Ryan McGale. Mark Hughes added a third as he finished off a well-worked attack and the Dwyers were looking full value for the lead before they were struck a sucker punch as a speculative shot beat Keady ‘keeper Adam Ashforth at his right hand side to level the scores. Despite this goal it was the home team that were on top of the game and were creating a number of attacks originating from Barry Toal, Paul Murray and Kevin Rafferty in the middle of the field. It wasn’t long before Keady edged in front again as Ryan McGale was brought down in the Collegeland defence and the resulting free was despatched over the bar by Barry Hughes. McGale was also involved in the next score as he showed great vision to find Ryan Comiskey in space and Comiskey fired over his first point of the game.  The Dwyers again went three points clear as Mark Hughes converted his first free of the game before Collegelands fired over a point. The first half ended with Mark Hughes demonstrating his free taking ability once more to leave the scores at 0.07 to 1.01 in favour of the Dwyers at half time.

Keady got the first score of the second half as they started the stronger team and it was Ryan Comiskey who put them four points clear but this was cancelled out by a soft free converted by the visitors. Keady’s best goal chance of the game came as a long ball played in to box was caught by Ryan McGale who turned past his man with ease to put himself in a one-on-one situation but he was abruptly brought down and denied the chance for a goal. The resulting free was converted by Mark Hughes before the ball was played down the field from the kickout and a free was given away in the Keady box which was duly converted by the visitors. With little over ten minutes gone in the second half Chrissy Woods score what was to be the Dwyers last point of the game as he showed great composure under pressure from two defenders to slot the ball over the bar. At this stage it looked like Keady were the more likely victors as they controlled much of the possession, but a point from the visitors was quickly followed by a goal to leave the scores level. After this Keady struggled to create many clear chances as the goal had galvanised Collegelands and another point edged them in front for the first time in the game. As Keady pushed for the equalising score, they left themselves vulnerable in defence and a long ball into the Keady defence was left unchallenged and it was left for a Collegeland forward to punch the ball into the net and earn them the win.

Although Keady were by no means guilty of underestimating the opposition, it was clear that the visitors simply wanted the game more, especially in the second half where they felt they could achieve the win and credit must go to them for that. Despite this disappointing defeat, Keady will now look towards Wednesday’s home game against Tullysarran as a chance for redeeming themselves and continuing the push for promotion.
Best wishes also to senior players Eugene McDonnell and Stephen Murray who are recovering from injury at the minute. McDonnell sustained a knee injury on duty for the county hurlers last weekend whereas Murray picked up a shoulder injury during the game against Collegelands. Both players are integral parts of the senior team so good luck with the recovery.

Team:  A.Ashforth, C.Courtney, S.Murray (C.Woods), P.Smith (D.O’Hea), B.Toal, R.Mullen, P.Murray, C.Nugent, K.Rafferty, R.Brennan, P.Gollogly, R.Comiskey, M.Hughes, R.McGale, B.Hughes (D.Nugent). Subs Not Used: A.Mone, R.Smith, B Scully, G.Toal, M.Toner,  

Scorers: M.Hughes (0.04), R.Comiskey (0.02),P.Gollogly (0.01), B. Hughes (0.01), R.McGale (0.01), C.Woods (0.01) .