Back-to-back titles for Kinsale

September 6th, 2008

Kinsale 0-12 Valley Rovers 0-9

Kinsale saw off a spirited Valley Rovers challenge at Belgooly last night to record back-to-back South East minor A football titles.

In the end there can be no denying that the better side won but they were made work extremely hard against a Rovers outfit who were superbly well disciplined in defence and had full forward Shane Nolan in sparkling form all evening.

Nolan kicked seven of his side’s tally but Rovers were a bit too reliant on the tricky number 14 for scores. In contrast, Kinsale had five different players who chipped in with scores and when you consider that they kicked 15 wides over the course of the hour, they could have had the game wrapped up long before they did had their shooting been a bit more accurate.

Things could well have been different had Shane O’Sullivan’s 35th minute penalty not been saved by Kinsale goalkeeper Tom Douglas, but based on the overall run of play, it would have been rough justice on the champions.

Kinsale had a number of outstanding performers on the night, but the midfield pairing of Brian Coughlan and Conor Stallard was where much of their dominance stemmed from. Coughlan kicked five points in total and orchestrated a raft of others, while Stallard won an amount of breaking ball and got through an amount of work.

Favourites Kinsale came into the game on the back of a superb season to date, thumping Sliabh Rua 5-15 to eight points in their opening tussle while taking the group three non-exam football league, after an unbeaten campaign.

Rovers, in contrast, stumbled and stuttered against Ballinhassig only a few weeks ago and would need a supreme effort to topple the holders.

Inside the first quarter all appeared to be going to plan as playing with the wind, Kinsale dominated the opening exchanges. Coughlan, Stallard, and Alan Gould showed up well and the latter opened the scoring inside two minutes. Cian O'Donoghue added another shortly after Brian Coughlan’s initial effort thundered off the crossbar.

However, Kinsale then got stuck in a rut and kicked a plethora of terrible wides which rendered much dominance around midfield useless.

Rovers stepped it up a notch and had the scores level after twenty minutes when the impressive Rob Moore, Shane Nolan, and Shane Sullivan all found their range.

Coughlan raised another white flag for Kinsale approaching the break and as they trailed in at the break only a point in front, it looked advantage Rovers who were wind assisted for the second period.

The Kinsale lads came out with renewed urgency and tacked on two vital scores via the ever impressive Coughlan as well as a second point for Alan Gould.

The games major turning point then arrived on 35 minutes when Shane Nolan was hauled down after Gary Farrell released him with an inch perfect pass.

Shane Sullivan stepped up to take the kick but his effort was saved to hand the onus back to Kinsale.

Eoin Irwin then lofted over a tremendous score to open up a four point gap but a dogged Rovers refused to wilt. Nolan had three more points but each time his efforts to reel in Kinsale were pegged back when Tyrone Kellett, Coughlan and Gould retained the four point advantage.

Rovers then introduced Bill Hawkes and Liam Dempsey and the latter was instrumental in bringing the Innishannon back into contention.

Nolan continued his hot streak on front of goal with two splendid points from play as well as a free but just when they looked like bringing the game level, up stepped Coughlan for Kinsale to give his side some breathing space.

Valley Rovers poured forward in search of a match winning goal but couldn’t muster an opening against a wise rearguard shepherded by Ger O’Callaghan. Coughlan wrapped up the game with his point of the night to claim a famous victory for his team.

Scorers – Kinsale: B. Coughlan 0-5 (0-3 frees), A. Gould 0-4, C. O'Donoghue, T. Kellett, E. Irwin 0-1 each. Valley Rovers: S. Nolan 0-7 (0-3 frees), R. Moore, S. Sullivan 0-1 each.

Kinsale: T. Douglas, M. Scully, G. O’Callaghan, N. McCarthy, D. Ward, T. Kellett, M. Eaton, B. Coughlan, C. Stallard, N. Stanley, C. O'Donoghue, J. Tyner, A. Gould, P. Fitzgerald and J. Gould. Subs: E. Irwin for P. Fitzgerald inj. (18).

Valley Rovers: G. Rice, A. Coleman, C. Lehane, E. O’Mahony, D. Murphy, K. O’Driscoll, J. O’Regan, A. O’Connor, J. Walsh, R. Moore, J. Hurley, S. Sullivan, D. Lynch, S. Nolan, G. Farrell. Subs: L. Dempsey for J. Hurley (48), B. Hawkes for R. Moore (49)

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