Great performance by Intermediate footballer to win county title.
SHELS POWER THEIR WAY INTO THE SENIOR RANKS.
Years of success at underage level manifested itself at Wexford Park last Sunday afternoon as a young and skilful Shelmaliers outfit outclassed a Kilmore side that failed to rise to the occasion the Shels winning on a convincing scoreline of 4-11 to 0-2.
While the Shels were the far superior outfit certainly Kilmore can play better than they did last Sunday afternoon and their cause was certainly not helped by a blistering spell from the slick Shels forward line that yielded an unanswered 2-2 in the last 8 minutes before the interval.
Up to that stage Kilmore had more than held their own and only trailed 0-5 to 0-2 and indeed a Paddy Sinnott free early on had almost deceived the Shels defence and crossed the line.
In the early passages of play Shels corner back Cathal Gaule made some very telling interceptions to prevent dangerous Kilmore attacks.
However the 2 Shels goals the first superbly converted by Colin Redmond following a flowing move involving Aidan Murphy and Derek Walsh and the 2nd on the stroke of half time taken in typical opportunist fashion by Terry Gainfort again after a telling assist from Derek Walsh completely transformed the contest from a relatively tight affair to a cakewalk for the Shels.
The brace of goals helped the Shels to a half time lead of 2-7 to 0-2. The second half was completely dominated by Shels with their powerhouse midfield of Clive Lawlor and the splendid Brian Malone not relenting for one moment. Rare attacks by Kilmore were more than adequately repelled by a very tight Shels defence with a strong spine in the shape of veteran Colm Tynan at full back and excellent reader of the game David Walsh in the pivotal centre back position
Further goals were added by dangerous corner forward Derek Walsh in the 43rd minute but the best goal of the game was held for the 50th minute when young Eoin Doyle picked out Clive Lawlor with a magnificent cross field pass in an advanced position and Lawlor made no mistake form close range. In fairness to Kilmore they never gave hope and Noel Rafferty and Graham Mernagh in defence battled on but it was a hopeless cause as the Shels continued to add on the scores and they finished with a fine tally of 4-11. From next year Shels will join the ranks of St Anne’s, St Martins, Duffry Rovers and Starlights/Raparees in fielding senior teams in both grades…
Team:
David Shiggins.
Marc Walsh Colm Tynan Cathal Gaule.
Thomas Barron David Walsh Emmet O Leary.
Brian Malone Clive Lawlor.
Alan Griffith Stephen Banville Graham Power.
Derek Walsh Aidan Murphy Terry Gainfort.
Subs used :
Colin Redmond for Graham Power.
Eoin Doyle for Aidan Murphy.
Brian O Shaughnessy for Thomas Barron.
Darren Malone for Alan Griffith.
Chris Gordan for Derek Walsh.
Other subs.
Ibar Murphy, Ciaran O Shaughnessy, Stehpen Cash, Seammie Harding, David Kehoe, Adrian Veale, Paddy Doyle, Vinnie Parker, Barry O Connor and Paudie McMahon.
Manager Tom Tynan.
Selectors John Nolan, Dermot Keane and Mick Smith.