Éire Óg Greystones topple Rathnew in Wicklow Division 1 Top 4 opener

Rathnew 0-10

Dan Keane’s second-half goal enough to stop any hope of a Rathnew comeback as Éire Óg Greystones won 1-12 to 10 points in the first game of the Division 1 Top 4 competition on Sunday morning.

Éire Óg, playing at home and flying high from have secured the Herbie Hill Cup by finishing top of the SFL Division 1 proper, started with intent when they went three points up inside the first five minutes, Gavin O’Shea with two and a single from Sam Thompson.

Jody Merrigan got the first for Rathnew, but this was swiftly cancelled out as Éire Óg worked a kick-out well down the field that ended up with Keane storming through the middle to fire over his first score of the game.

The first goal chance of the game came the way of the visitors. Gary Byrne played a long ball into the box which Bill Moorehouse gathered under severe pressure. The corner-forward turned and got his shot away, but it was saved by the fingertips of Éire Óg’s Sean O’Neill.

This gave Rathnew a confidence boost and they began to put pressure on the Éire Óg defence, a second point Merrigan and a free from Eddie Doyle bringing the deficit back to a point.

Darren Hayden got the next score to settle the home side’s nerves, which was followed up by a second point for Thompson.

Eddie Doyle scored a free after this, but it was cancelled out by a Hayden free as Éire Óg went in at half-time leading 0-7 to 0-4.

Rathnew opened the second half by scoring the first two points, Merrigan from play and another free from Eddie Doyle brought it back to a one-point game.

Keane got a point back for the home side; however, this was cancelled out by an Eddie Doyle free.

Next came the most decisive moment of the game. Hayden played a long free into the Rathnew box that was taken well by Fionn O’Carroll. He turned and shot for goal, but was denied by the gloves of Ronan Doyle, the ball fall to the feet of Keane and the wing back made no mistake and tapped it to the net.

Ronan Doyle was called into action moments later as he saved a Thompson shot while diving across goal.

In the 44th minute, an off-the-ball incident caused numerous players to get involved in what can only be described as a brawl. At the end of it referee Darragh Byrne sent off Jonah Graham and Eddie Doyle from the Rathnew team and Luke Prendergast from the Éire Óg team as well as one of the home side’s selectors.

While being two men down and having one man less than Éire Óg, Rathnew got themselves back into the game with a point from play apiece from Ross O’Brien and Merrigan, bringing the score to 1-8 to 0-9 with five minutes left to play.

Eoin O’Neill for Éire Óg and Ciaran Coffey for Rathnew exchanged points next to leave the sides nicely poised for five minutes of injury-time.

A point each for Fionn O’Carroll and Eoin O’Longaigh brought the Éire Óg lead out to four points before James Stafford caught a ball just outside the 13-metre line and took his advanced mark.

He powered his shot goalwards, but it smashed off the post and with that Éire Óg broke down the pitch, with the ball ending up in the hands of Conall Deeney who slotted it between the uprights to end the game with his team winning 1-12 to 0-10.

Éire Óg Greystones: Sean O’Neill; Colin O’Shea, Daire Devine, Luke Prendergast; Dan Keane (1-2), Thade Shanahan, Conall Deeney (0-1); Cillian Keane, Brendan Cunningham; Fintan O’Shea, Darren Hayden (0-2, 1f), Gavin O’Shea (0-2); Sam Thompson (0-2), Darragh Shanahan, Fionn O’Carroll (0-1). Subs: Eoin O’Neill (0-1) for D. Shanahan (49), Gearoid Murphy for C. Keane (53), Daniel Healy for T. Shanahan (57), Eoin O’Longaigh (0-1) for S. Thompson (60+2), Oisin Shanahan for G. O’Shea (60+2).

Rathnew: Ronan Doyle; Ronan Manley, James Snell, Gary Byrne; William Moorehouse, Sam Healy, Adam ‘Ollie’ Byrne; Ciaran Coffey (0-1), Theo Smyth; Jonah Graham, Ross O’Brien (0-1), Robbie Murphy; Bill Moorehouse, Jody Merrigan (0-4), Eddie Doyle (0-4, 4f). Subs: Fionn Sullivan for W. Moorehouse (44), Eoin Doyle for B. Moorehouse (44) James Stafford for R. Murphy (53), Jack Healy for S. Healy (58, inj).

Referee: Darragh Byrne (Ballymanus)