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Senior championship bid gets off to bad
start
Starlights 2-7, Sarsfields 0-8:
The championship season may be in its infancy, but a
candidate for fastest goal of the year emerged already in
Wexford Park on Monday last. A mere nine seconds had elapsed
when speed merchant Willie Hudson made full use of a huge
gap in the Sarsfields defence to blast the ball past James
Roice, giving Starlights a lead they never relinquished in
this Group 2 game.
Just three minutes later the Enniscorthy side were
celebrating again as Gary Brilly ripped the defence wide
open to crash home goal number two - all of this achieved
while playing against the wind and without their chief
dangerman, John Hudson. Points were added by Rory O遊onnor
and Davy Morrissey before eight minutes had elapsed, but
Starlights didn靖 score again before the break.
And although Sarsfields eventually found their feet and the
exchanges were even for the rest of the game, they never
recovered from those early goals and paid a costly price.
Team captain Ciar嫕 O過eary finally opened their account
from a sweetly-struck line ball in the 19th minute, and
Barry Goff tapped over a free before Cian Hore scored a
brace from play to reduce arrears to 2-2 to 0-4 at
half-time.
Sarsfields suggested they might have something to offer when
Hore added a third point within 40 seconds of the re-start,
but scores from Willie Hudson and Davy Morrissey (free) left
Starlights with a healthy margin (2-4 to 0-5). Ciar嫕
O過eary converted a free before a barren spell of eleven
minutes ended when Gary Brilly did likewise at the other
end. Sarsfields couldn靖 get the margin down to anything
less than four points, with O過eary tapping over another
free before substitute Lee Walker had an effort on goal well
saved by Pa Doyle.
The wily Ronan Furlong and Tom Wall added Starlights points
prior to Liam Goff closing the scoring for a Sarsfields side
who were asleep in the early stages and paid a costly price.
Starlights: Pa Doyle; Liam Boland, Mark Gahan (capt.), Joe
Newe; Mark Quigley, Adrian Fenlon, Tom Wall (0-1); Declan
Ruth, Jason Russell; Davy Morrissey (0-2, 1 free), Ollie
Connors, Willie Hudson (1-1); Rory O遊onnor (0-1), Ronan
Furlong (0-1), Gary Brilly (1-1, 0-1 free). Subs. - Anthony
Russell for O遊onnor, Ricky Fox for J. Russell.
Sarsfields: James Roice; Shane Barnes, Michael Hanrahan,
Enda Whelan; Colm Callery, Colin Bent, Brendan Mulligan;
Ciar嫕 O過eary (capt., 0-3, 2 frees, 1 line ball), Barry
Goff (0-1 free); David Gannon, Emmet Keeling, Kevin Gore;
Paul Lambert, Cian Hore (0-3), Noel Walsh. Subs. - Lee
Walker for Lambert (temp.), Walker for Gannon, Liam Goff
(0-1) for Gore, Andy Moore for Walsh, Fran Cleary for
Callery, inj.
Referee: Ray McDonald (Adamstown). |
