10th July 2006 - South Kerry Minor Football League Division 1 Round 3 in Waterville

St. Mary's 2-07 V 1-10 Waterville

A Paddy Curran goal 2 minutes from time salvaged a point for Waterville with St. Mary’s on Monday night last in the South Kerry Minor League. Waterville got off to the better start but a goal from Conor Moran after 20 minutes kept the Mary’s in the game and trailed by only 3 points at the break. However it was the visitors who dominated the second half and when Moran hit his second with 10 minutes left it looked as if they were going to cause an upset until Curran goaled soon after. Although feeling hard done by after conceding late on it was a fantastic result for the Cahersiveen side, with Waterville fielding close to strongest and while the Mary’s still had 3 more players to add to the squad.

Waterville were quickest to start when Paddy Curran converted a close free a minute in while a different outcome could have been when both Conor Moran and Paul O’Donoghue struck for goal but were denied by the crossbar 3 and 5 minutes later. The home side doubled their advantage when Steven Dwyer raised the white flag after good build up play from Sean Cathal O’Sullivan, while Paddy Curran carried his placed ball kicking from the Munster Minor Final in to this game from the day before when he exchanged two frees to points after fouls on Steven Dwyer and Cormac O’Sullivan respectively. With St. Mary’s sinking fast it took a moment of brilliant positioning from captain Conor Moran to keep them in the game and when a brilliant assist from Sean Cournane couldn’t have made it easier for Moran he tapped the ball to the back of the net to pull the margin back to the minimum. This didn’t last long when Cournane again was involved this time after being on the wrong end of a strong tackle Paul O’Donoghue pointed a close free to level proceedings after 22 minutes. St. Mary’s were kept in touch with the reigning South Kerry Minor Champions when Shane Horgan pulled off a stunning save from Denis Donnelly. Donnelly and Curran stole the show for the final 5 minutes of the half when constant long ball from the mid-fielder to the full forward meant two more points from Curran and Steven Dwyer added another to bring his tally to two and leave the half time score St. Mary’s 1-1 Waterville 0-7.

Paul O’Donoghue added  his 26th (2-20) point for the minors when he pointed a 40m free, prior to this St. Mary’s were disallowed three debatable points but held their head and made sure of there scores from here on in. Denis Donnelly pointed a 25m free to keep their distance but two points without reply meant the Mary’s were hacking away at their lead when Vinny Moriarty added a fantastic long range point after good work from Sean Cournane and a minute later they reversed rolls as Cournane added his first of the evening. Curran and Donnelly both added points while Sean Cournane kicked his 20th Minor point of the year with 13 minutes left on the clock. St. Mary’s were now dominating play all over and this paid off when O’Donoghue sailed the ball over the bar before a great individual run by Conor ‘Spud’ Moran lead to a cracking goal to put the Mary’s ahead by two points for the first time in the game. With 6 minutes left Paul O’Donoghue converted a cracking free and with this gave the Minors the equivalent of 100 points in all competitions this year (13-61). Then with time nearly up, the visitors were dealt a hard blow when Waterville were award a 21m free after a foul on Curran and when Curran stepped up he managed to blast the ball to the back of the net beyond Horgan and his 4 defenders on the line to salvage a draw for his Waterville side on a final score line of St. Mary’s 2-7 Waterville 1-10.

Neither side will the 100 percent happy with the result with the Mary’s kicking themselves for relinquish their lead so late on while Waterville will have to have a rethink for the Championship and look likely to have bowed out of the South Kerry League. Best on the night for the Mary’s were Shane Horgan, Conor O’Shea who done a magnificent job on Paddy Curran limiting his scoring to frees, Aidan Walsh at centre forward, Vinny Moriarty at mid-field, Colm O’Shea and Paul O’Donoghue in the half forward line while the two full forwards of Moran and Cournane were brilliant. Waterville’s best man on the night was Paddy Curran’s frees while when things didn’t go their way in the second half good players were very hard to find.    

Scorers – St. Mary’s: Conor Moran 2-0, Paul O’Donoghue 0-4,3f, Sean Cournane 0-2, Vinny Moriarty 0-1. Waterville: Paddy Curran 1-6,1-4f, Steven Dwyer 0-2, Denis Donnelly 0-2,1f.

Wides – St. Mary’s 12 (7) Waterville 6 (6).