By: Kevin Corrigan
Tullamore Court Hotel Offaly Senior “B” Football Championship Round 4
Cappincur 0-13
Daingean 0-12
Needing at least a draw to keep their qualification hopes alive, Sean Graham booted over a richly deserved winner for Cappincur three minutes into injury time and while Daingean looked to have secured a point, they have absolutely no complaints at their loss.
Fresh on the back of a goal rampage in their annihilation of a fancied Ballinagar in the last round, Daingean gave a very poor display. They were out fought by a much hungier Cappincur throughout the first half and even when they got their work rate up to more acceptable levels in the second half, they never ignited, were fighting an uphill battle the whole way and never generated any real momentum.
The only mitigating factor for Daingean is that they had their semi-final berth booked with six points from their opening three games. Cappincur would have been in the relegation play off if they had lost and it is far from unusual for a team who has to win to beat one with very little at stake.
That was very much the case here and Cappincur’s very poor defeat by Tubber placed a gun to their head. They are still on icy ground and must get at least a draw against Ballinagar in the final group round to survive – a defeat there will put them out and into the relegation play off as they will be tied on four points with the losers of Tullamore and Tubber and both of them have Cappincur on the head to head.
Cappincur’s displayed terrific fighting spirit, working like men possessed, bottling up Daingean players and over turning a large volume of ball. It was a wake up call for Daingean who would have expected more for a parish derby, even if they didn’t have a whole lot to play for. They may have been guilty of the cardinal sins of complacency and cockiness. There was certainly a belief among their supporters that Daingean just had to turn up to win and this looked to have crept into the team, who just had a bad day at the office.
Daingean may get over not being as hungry or motivated as Cappincur but the big take away and the most disappointing aspect for them is that they allowed themselves to be bullied and were resoundingly beaten in the physicality stakes.
It was the place for such a performance, the defeat does not do one iota of damage to Daingean and they have plenty of time to right ships. In the broader scheme of things, it doesn’t matter to Daingean and it may actually serve them well going forward as their demolition of Ballinagar had earned them the tag of championship favourites and this showed that they are not as good as they looked that day when things just unravelled for their opponents and the game got away from them in the second half.
The result certainly mattered to Cappincur who brought a fantastic work ethic to the table. They were easily the better team for the first twenty minutes and their 0-6 to 0-2 lead was a fair reflection of the way it was going. Without doing anything special, Daingean got back into it before the break as three points from Odhran Connolly, including a two pointer, sent them in on level terms, 0-6 each at the break – Daingean did not really deserve to be level at the break and we thought that this would ignite them but it didn’t.
Brian Norris and Ger Treacy (free) put Cappincur two ahead early in the second half as Daingean improved and fought harder. Peter Daly saved well from Shane Marsden in the 34th minute before points from Adam Bolger and Cormac Whittle levelled it up.
Cappincur did their best to kick it away for a few minutes. Brian Norris kicked two poor wides and dropped one short and Peter Norris and Sean Courtney also turned their nose up at good chances. The winners should have had five points in that period and were fortunate that they didn’t pay a price for it. Crucially, however, they defended tenaciously and prevented Daingean from getting in front.
Ger Treacy gave Cappincur the lead in the 46th minute, a well marked Shane Tierney equalised and Peter Norris and Eoin Carroll edged Cappincur two in front as it entered the closing ten minutes.
Cian Bracken (free) and Peter Norris exchanged points and Daingean piled on considerable late pressure. Adam Bolger was unlucky to hit the post with a two point shot but two Shane Tierney frees put Daingean level two minutes into injury time – the final one in the 62nd minute was for a Cappincur three man breach with Tierney opting to tap over from 14 metres rather than sending the ball out for Cian Bracken to have a go at a two point winner.
That meant that Sean Graham’s excellent last gasp point was a winner rather than an equaliser but Cappincur deserved both points every day of the week.
MATCH ANALYSIS
THE SCORERS
Cappincur: Eoin Carroll (1 x 2p), Ger Treacy (1f) and Peter Norris 0-3 each, Ciaran Farrell, Brian Norris, Sean Courtney and Sean Graham 0-1 each.
Daingean: Shane Tierney 0-5 (3f), Odhran Connolly 0-3 (1 x 2p), Adam Bolger, Cormac Whittle, Shane Marsden, Cian Bracken (f) 0-1 each.
THE TEAMS
CAPPINCUR: Peter Daly; Ollie Hayes, Darragh Norris, Tommy Leavy; Brion Carroll, Diarmuid Carroll, Sean Graham; Adam Galvin, Ciaran Farrell; Hubert Healion, Brian Norris, Sean Courtney; Ger Treacy, Eoin Carroll, Peter Norris. Subs – Jason Gethings for Healion (52m), Igor Daly for Treacy (58m).
DAINGEAN: Conal Curley; Cathal McKnight, Ryan Conway, Casey Evans; Steven Joyce, Adam Bolger, Cormac Whittle; Sam Wright, Scott Milne; Aaron Longworth, Aran Byrne, Charlie Burns; Shane Marsden, Odhran Connolly, Shane Tierney. Subs – Finn McGuinness for Conway, inj. (30m), Cian Bracken for Longworth (40m), Jamie Hayes for Byrne (54m)
Referee – Marius Stones.
STATISTICS
Wides: Daingean – 4 (1 in first half); Cappincur – 8 (1in first half).
Yellow cards: Daingean 2 (Jamie Hayes, Cian Bracken); Cappincur – 0
Black cards: 0
Red cards: 0
By Offaly Secretary Sun 16th Aug
