Adult Football League 5: Round Tower 4-15 v Thomas Davis 2-9, Monastery Road, Sunday 28th July 2019
Old and young combined to great effect Sunday morning for our Junior A Footballers to effectively dispatch Thomas Davis and maintain their strong finish to the season. Minor Footballers Joey Leech, Alex O’Neill and Jack Halpin tormented the visitors throughout, amassing 4-9 between them.
Scores were exchanged during the opening ten minutes, with Dermot Milton kicking our first from a free, O’Neill pushed thru the visitors defence to register our second and Leech notched our third. Our advantage was one before Leech capitalised to point after Jack Halpin had struck the post. Halpin struck our first goal on the 12 minute mark. It started from a Keith Graham kick-out and was impressively worked upfield before Mark Taylor released Halpin in on goal and he dispatched low to the corner. Barry Finn intercepted a dangerous Davis attack but they narrowed the margin to four with their third point. But Leech struck another decisive blow on the 17th minute. It was another excellent team move, with Jason Murphy at centre-half back initially combining with Halpin at centre-half forward. O’Neill then cut inside and released Leech who struck across the keeper to the bottom corner. Milton followed it up with a free from the 40 and the energetic Fergus Callaly at midfield was on the receiving end of a bad foul and Milton slotted the resulting free. Davis did respond with a goal when their impressive number 12 netted following a pacey run thru the middle. Leech responded with an outstanding score off his right when off balance, bringing the half-time margin to 2-8 v 1-5.
Davis pushed on in the second half but kicked four wides in the opening eight minutes. Added to this, Dave Chapman at full back, Murphy and Graham made timely interceptions. The visitors registered one point for their efforts and Towers efficiency was exemplified when O’Neill netted our third. Graham’s kickout released the Dublin Under 20 hurler and he carried beyond the halfway line in on goal and struck powerfully to the net. Davis registered two and the Towers response came from Andy Rigney who seized on a Michael Cleary flick on and jinked past his marker to create the space to point. Adam Behan struck our 10th point from distance and at the other end Adam Clarke cleared off the line. This led to Leech standing his man up before accelerating past him and striking a beautiful point off his right. Leech turned provider for Halpin to tap over. Davis broke the Towers rearguard but Graham pulled off a brilliant block. The next play saw O’Neill deliver an outstanding reverse pass beyond the Davis rearguard for Leech to speed onto and finish off. Patient build-up then resulted in an opening for Cleary and he raised the arm of the umpire. It was fitting Leech and O’Neill had the final say. The former’s dipping strike clipped the crossbar before going over, bringing his total for the day to 1-7. O’Neill them slalomed in from the right and struck low across the keeper to register our fourth goal.
Round Tower: Keith Graham, David Clarke, Dave Chapman, Adam Clarke, Barry Finn, Jason Murphy, Matthew Kelly, Fergus Callaly, Dermot Milton, Adam Behan, Jack Halpin, Alex O’Neill, Andy Rigney, Mark Taylor, Joey Leech. Used sub: Michael Cleary
Thanks to Matthew Lysaght for the excellent pictures
