Portarlington (Laois) 0-10 Tinahely (Wicklow) 2-05
Tinahely pulled off a huge shock in the Leinster Championship with a narrow 2-05 to 0-10 win over Portarlington in Portlaoise.
Portarlington came into the game as massive favourites and were the better side early on as they enjoyed most of the ball and attacking play against the Wicklow side.
A spread of scores from Jake Foster, Jason Moore and Alex Mohan and a fine mark from Darragh Galvin saw them lead by three points inside twelve minutes. Matthew Ging with the single point for the visitors.
Tinahely, to their credit dug in and two goals inside seven minutes courtesy of Matthew Ging and Eoin Darcy saw the Wicklow champions incredibly lead by two with twenty minutes on the clock. Arguably against the run of play but their direct attacking football was causing all sorts of problems for Portarlington.
Two further scores from the impressive Matthew Ging had Tinahely in front by three at half time. 2-03 to 0-06.
Portarlington came out with intent in the second half and in no mood for being on the end of the latest club shock.
Two fine points from play by Jake Foster and point from the lively Ronan Coffey on forty five minutes saw the sides level heading down the home straight.
It took Tinahely eighteen second half minutes before they would add to their first half tally but thankfully for them to that point they had limited their opponents to just three points.
Eoin Darcy's free on forty eight minutes and Matthew Ging’s crucial point late in the game was enough for Tinahely on the day. They survived a huge onslaught in the dying minutes but held on to down Portarlington on a famous day for club football in Wicklow.
An exchange of scores from Jake Foster and Paddy O’Rourke saw a point apiece on the scoreboard after three minutes before the favourites began to find their groove and up things all over the field in terms of intensity, possession and scoring chances.
Points from Jason Moore, Alex Mohan and a close range mark from Darragh Galvin started to get Portarlington moving in the opening quarter as they led 0-04 to 0-01 but Tinahely weren’t going to lie down.
A sublime ball over the top from Cillian McDonald for Matthew Ging completely carved open the Portarlington defence soon after leaving Ging to dance his way around the defence and bury the ball past O’Reilly in goal. The sides level for the first time.
Despite being under pressure and having to defend for a lot of the opening half, Tinahely were showing signs that they could cause problems in attack especially with their direct play in search of the towering Rory Stokes.
They had their second goal just six minutes later to lead the game for the first time. Ging playing provider this time in a perfectly weighted pass for Eoin Darcy who buried his effort past O’Reilly to leave Portarlington reeling and behind by two.
Portarlington then began to rush things slightly as they looked for a strong response. A Ronan Coffey free dropped short from close range before Foster saw his effort come back off the crossbar. A further wide from Foster as half time approached was met by a wonderfully composed finish from Ging at the other end to leave three between the sides at the break.
Portarlington knew they had to come out with intent after the break and that they did. Ronan Coffey tried his best to orchestrate for his side in attack and played provider for two fine Jake Foster points to narrow the gap to just one midway through the second half. A point of his own levelled the game as the final ten minutes closed in.
With the sides now level and still no second half score for Tinahely the chance of a shock was looking less and less likely but the expected strong finish didn’t come for Portarlington.
With forty eight minutes on the clock Eoin Darcy finally scored Tinahely’s first of the second half to edge them ahead once again with the clock continuing to tick down.
The Wicklow side began to show much better game management with Darcy’s score coming after a really patient passage of play in the build up.
Portarlington threw everything at Tinahely in the final few minutes to try and wrestle control of the game but could not break through a steely Tinahely defence who were heroic in their efforts to see out the game to the final whistle.
A late exchange of scores between Ging and Coffey kept the lead at a single point with the four minutes of injury time played. Portarlington had a free with the last kick of the game with Ronan Coffey stepping up. Instead of launching a high ball into the box he decided to play the ball short with the referee blowing for full time moments later.
A famous win for Tinahely who advance to take on Tullamore next weekend.
Portarlington: Luke O’Reilly; Darragh Slevin, Mikey Bennett, Alex Mohan (0-01); Jordan Fitzpatrick, Cathal Bennett, Jason Moore (0-1); Keith Bracken, Corey Lyons; Sean Michael Corcoran, Ronan Coffey (0-03, 3f), Colin Slevin; Jake Foster (0-03, 1f), Darragh Galvin (0-01 1m), Rioghan Murphy (0-01)
Subs: Graham Weldon for Corey Lyons (29)
Tinahely: Alan Nolan; Kevin Mulhall, Michael Byrne, Bradley Hickey; James Hedderman, Noel Mulhall, Cillian McDonald; Eoghan Byrne, Daniel Hedderman; Larry Kinsella, Eoin Darcy (1-01, 1f), Paddy O’Rourke (0-01); Matthew Ging (1-03), Rory Stokes, Jason Cush
Subs: Thomas Kelly for Rory Stokes (45), Shane Hogan for James Hedderman (49), Brian Walsh for Paddy O’Rourke (49), Peter Stapleton for Daniel Hedderman (56), Curtis Keating for Bradley Hickey (61)
Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford)
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
