CULLOVILLE 4-15 COLLEGELAND 1-13
CULLOVILLE tore out onto the pitch in Ballymacnab for Sundays intermediate Championship opener against Collegeland togged out in jerseys loaned from their Louth neighbours, Naomh Malachis’s, writes Martin Hearty.
Collegeland’s traditional colours, like Culloville’s, are blue and white, and whatever about clashing on the pitch, neither team wanted to “clash”, on the pitch.
For the first 10 minutes of the match Collegeland seemed to be in control, a strong defensive performance shutting down any Culloville attacks.
However they lost the opportunity to take the game by the scruff of the neck with some erratic and frantic shooting, players seemed to take a pop at the posts as soon as they got the ball in their hands, regardless of the impossible angle or heavy defence.
Still, Collegeland managed to grab an early lead thanks to two well taken frees.
It was seven minutes before Culloville bothered the scoreboards, a Kieran Hatzer free getting them off the mark.
Ten minutes in and the game had been ebbing and flowing fairly evenly, with the defensive lines on both teams working hard to clear the ball from their end of the pitch, and very little happening in terms of scores.
That was to all change rather suddenly when Culloville’s Gerard Callan managed to get through the Collegland defence, and fire a cracking shot that went over the head of the O’Rahilly’s keeper, and hit the bottom of the crossbar before bouncing into the net.
The Culloville faithful were still cheering in celebration when they noticed Collegeland’s Michael Cullen tearing up the wing of the pitch with nothing but grass to stop him, one well placed kick later, and Culloville’s goal had been cancelled out, within a minute of it being scored.
Culloville refused to let it rattle them however, and three minutes later Kieran Hatzer found himself in front of the Collegeland goal, a hard tackle sent him crashing to the ground, but even while horizontal he managed to get a fist to the ball and knock it up to Gerard Callan who drove the ball home with a kick that threatened to tear the nets off the posts.
Culloville took firm control of the match from this point, knocking over a few impressive scores, while Collegeland failed to register anything for almost 15 minutes.
Twenty-five minutes in Brian McGeary scored Collegeland’s first point from play, and was unlucky not to get a goal a few minutes later when his shot just about sailed over the bar.
Referee Damian McConville blew the half time whistle with the score at 1-05 to 2-07 in Culloville’s favour.
Collegeland came onto the pitch for the second half re-invigorated and full of energy.
They hit three unanswered points in the first few minutes of the second half, their players finally seeming to get into the habit of aiming before they kick.
Much like the first half however, they dominated for the first 10 minutes before running out of steam.
A scuffle in the Collegeland box led to a Culloville penalty, which ended predictably, with another goal being added to the south Armagh boy’s tally.
From this point on Culloville were firmly in control, with a fourth goal around the 15 minute mark ending any doubt that they wouldn’t be coming away from Ballymacnab with a win under their belt.
Collegeland displayed an admirable fighting spirit, competing for every ball until the final whistle, but in the end it was Culloville’s day.
Culloville might have won with a fairly hefty margin, but a team who have been in two of the last three finals will need to play better than this if they want to see any silverware this year, they cant count on numerous goals pulling them through when they come up against some of the championship’s more fierce competition.
Collegeland will have two issues to address, namely stamina and shooting. They were impressive at the beginning of both halves, and several times threatened to run away with the game, however after 10 to 15 minutes they were forced to take it down a gear.
This, combined with shooting which at times seemed to have no regard for either directionality or physics, is what let Culloville dominate the scoreboard.
CULLOVLLE: Kieran McMahon, Eddie Dale, PJ Maguire(0-01), Stephen Rowland, Padraig Caherty, Padraig McGeeney, Sean Liddy, Johnny McGeeney(002), Thomas O’Neill, Fergal Rowland, Seamus Watters(0-01), Sean McGeeney(0-03), Gerard Callan(202), Sean McKeown(0-01), Kieran Hatzer(2-04) Niall Rowland (sub) (0-01)
COLLEGELAND: Macartan McGeary, Eammon McGeary(0-01), Ruairi McGeary, Brian Mitchell, Paul Cullen(0-01), Irwin Donnellan, Aidan Mitchell, Karol McGeary(0-01), Stephen Clancy, Barry Colhoun(0-01), Nathan McParland(0-04), Jack McGeary, Brian McGeary(0-02), Michael Cullen(1-03), Gareth McArdle.