Minor Football League Division 3 South: Round Tower 7-21 v Ballyboden St Enda 2-6, Sunday 22nd April 2018, Monastery Road
Round Tower Minor Footballers emphatically returned to winning ways in the league with a comprehensive defeat of Ballyboden St Enda’s, writes Mick McGlynn. This Towers Minor team possesses great pace in the inside forward line and an instinct for goal that was evident throughout. Seven goals were registered and other chances were created in a dominant display. Sean Casey han-dpassed to enable Jack Halpin to register the first point within a minute of throw-in and the former kicked our second with the next play. Boden were level on six minutes but the first of Towers goals duly arrived. Joey Leech, who had just been denied by a pointblank save by the visiting keeper, carried and played across to Casey. He turned and released Lee Moran in on goal to sidefoot past the keeper. The second goal followed. Alex O’Neill won the kick-out and played in Casey. He quickly carried in on goal before striking low past the keeper. O’Neill flashed another goal chance past the keepers left before the third arrived on the ten minute mark. Liam O’Connor fielded around the middle and charged into space. He flicked it to Casey and he again struck low to net his second. It was all about goals. On 15 minutes our fourth had been netted. O’Neill, Halpin and Leech were involved in the build up. Leech strike looked to have skewed wide but Andrew Rigany did brilliant to retrieve and cut in from the right to finish from an angle. Towers resorted back to kicking points. O’Connor cut in from the left to slot over and Rigany registered from the right. Boden palmed to the net and registered two points on the trot. O’Connor, Moran, Rigany and Casey combined brilliantly to tee up a Halpin point. Leech kicked with the right and centre-half-back Matthew Kelly broke forward to point. Leech and Casey combined for the latter to score and our fifth goal arrived just before the break. A kick-out broke to Moran and he broke at pace from the left and struck a low finish across the keeper. It left Towers well in command at the interval with a 5-8 v 1-4 advantage.
And to effectively kill-off the tie, the home side started the second half in the ascendancy. O’Neill kicked a point within a minute of the restart and then followed it up with a free. Boden struck a goal but the Towers response was emphatic. Leech kicked a point before a Rigany pass across goal found its way to Moran and he buried past the keeper. With the next play Rigany netted again. Leech and Casey combined and the keeper managed to palm the goal bound effort away but the corner forward stroked it soccer-style to the net. Moran kicked another and Jack Halpin carried from the middle at pace before striking over with his right. He followed it up with another great point. Leech added another and the final two points were registered by O’Neill.
The performance was built upon excellent attitude from the off and its now two wins from three for our boys.
Round Tower: Tom Cannon, Conor Broderick, Alex Judge, Adam Hanlon, Liam O’Connor, Matthew Kelly, Dara Byrne, Alex O’Neill, Joseph Murphy, Jack Quinlan, Lee Moran, Jack Halpin, Andrew Rigany, Joey Leech, Sean Casey. Subs: Oisin Douglas, Sean Hampson, Aidan Kelly, Lu Silowong, Kevin Curran, Sean Billings, Conor Mannion, Aaron Whelan,
