Moydow Harpers 2-10 St. Brigids, Killashee 1-14
On Saturday last, Moydow Harpers played in the Intermediate championship for the first time in 27 years. Neighbouring rivals, Killashee were the opposition for this encounter held at Clonbonny Grounds, Lanesboro. The odds were firmly against the Harpers, following an unsuccessful league Division 2 campaign with zero wins from 7 games.
The Harpers started brightly, setting up an attack from the throw-in, which resulted in a Mark Quinn point. A highly charged Moydow were getting stuck in from the word go, but were dealt a deadly blow when the Killashee full forward won the ball at the edge of the square and used his power to turn and blast the ball to the back of the net. This buoyed on Killashee and they lifted their game with strong running around the middle third of the pitch. However, relentless Harpers defending and excellent tackling limited the Brigids attack to a minimum of scores.
At the other end of the pitch, the Harpers forwards fought tigerishly for every ball and were rewarded with a number of scores from the boot of Paul Stuart and Mark Quinn. All of Quinns scores came from placed balls with one exceptional score from a side-line kick, 45 yards out. With both sides trading points and with half-time imminent, Niall Keenan received the ball in his own halfback line and weaved his way through several Brigids tacklers to score a cracker of a point.
Half-Time: Moydow Harpers 0-06 St. Brigids, Killashee 1-05
On the resumption, Killashee started strongly with 4 unanswered points in the first 10 minutes. The Harpers regrouped and substitutes Cathal Hilliard and Conor Keenan added impetus up front. Moydow started to claw back the lead through points from Mark Quinn and Conor Keenan before Paul Stuart blasted the ball to the back corner of the Brigids net to leave 2 points between the sides.
The sides traded points thereafter, before Brigids extended the lead to 4 points with 3 minutes remaining. The never-say-die Harpers countered with a superbly taken goal from Cathal Hilliard. With time ticking down, both sides traded points but unfortunately, the final whistle sounded before the Harpers could launch another attack.
Team: Tom Hobin, Chad Costello, Gerard Farrell, Frank Twaddle, Luke Costello, David Tiernan, Niall Keenan (0-01), Karol Farrell, Mark Quinn (0-06), Sean Farrell, Paul Stuart (1-01), Fergal Keenan, Gerard Slevin, John Doyle, Ronan Mac an Bheatha.
Subs: Brendan Conway, Cathal Hilliard (1-01), Conor Keenan (0-01), John Keegan, Colin Clyne, Frank Doyle.
