SENIOR FOOTBALL: Austin Stacks 2-9; Ballymac 2-2.
With both sides missing a number of regulars and the ground conditions very heavy after a morning of continuous rain, this opening round of the Town League played at Connolly Park last Sunday (20th Feb) was always likely to be a tame affair.
We were 1-1 up inside the opening four minutes with the opening point by wing back Daniel Bohan and a well taken goal by David Mannix.
However the visitors were back in it with a goal in the 6th minute.
We had a very good second quarter scoring 1-6 without reply, our 2nd goal coming in the 24th minute from Darragh Long.
This left us ahead by 2-7 to 1-0 at half time.
With ground conditions deteriorating by the minute the second half produced very little by way of scoring action.
Twenty five minutes had elapsed with both sides scoring only two points each, ours coming from a Daniel Bohan effort straight from the restart and a 53rd minute long-ranged one from William Kirby, who was staring his 17th competitive season (made his Club debut on the 5th March 1995).
Ballymac got in for a goal a minute later to leave us winners with seven points to spare.
It was good to see Nicky O’Connell (brother of Graham) making his Senior debut and also to see the welcome returns of Denis O’Neill and Alain Creagh back to the fold.
Team: Martin Moriarty, Pa McCarthy, David Leonard, Denis O’Neill, Paul Barrett (0-1), Alain Creagh, Daniel Bohan (0-2), William Kirby (0-1), Gearoid McCann, Padraig McCannon (0-1), TJ Hogan (Capt), Fiachna Mangan (0-1), David Mannix (1-0), Darragh Long (1-2 – 2 frees), David Clifford (0-1).
Subs: Graham O’Connell (41m), Sean Purcell (41m), Shane O’Callaghan (46m), Nicky O’Connell (55m), St. John Hegarty (55m).
Round 2 against Kerins O’Rahillys goes ahead in Connolly Park on this Sunday (27th Feb) with a 12.30pm start.
The 3rd and final round against John Mitchels is fixed for Sunday week, 6th March at Chamfers.