Impressive second half sees Milltownpass into semi-final

Milltownpass 1-15 Castledaly 1-7

Gerry Buckley

Outscoring Castledaly by 1-10 to 0-4 in the second half, Milltownpass maintained their late push for Westmeath intermediate football championship honours in fine style in near-perfect conditions for football at TEG Cusack Park last Saturday afternoon.

Davin Martin’s charges look to have timed their late run for Peter Geraghty Cup glory very well and, on this evidence, they are genuine contenders, albeit some of their shot selection was disappointing. Conversely, some outstanding moments from Westmeath panellist Lorcan Dolan apart, the 2008 Flanagan Cup winners can have no complaints about being stuck again in second tier football in the Lake County in 2024.

The early signs were that both sides would operate largely defensive plans, with just a point apiece from frees to show for their efforts in the opening nine minutes – Liam Brennan (from the ground) and Fergal Hynes (from his hands) scoring at either end. Shane Corcoran made and scored the winners’ second point in the tenth minute, but this was soon cancelled out by a great score from the aforementioned Dolan (after fine approach work by the pacey Adam Turley).

Dolan brought the large band of Castledaly supporters to their feet in the 13th minute with a terrific goal after receiving Aaron Nugent’s pass. Noel O’Reilly had a great fisted ‘point’ disallowed for the men in black and white – harshly, it seemed for overcarrying. Alan Stone put Paul Kelly’s troops four points clear (1-3 to 0-2) with a great score in the 18th minute. However, with Brandon Kelly beginning to put his stamp on proceedings, his delightful brace of points (prior to picking up a yellow card for allegedly diving) and a well-taken score from Liam Gorman had the deficit down to the bare minimum (1-3 to 0-5) by the interval.

Justin Coughlan doubled the losers’ advantage a mere 30 seconds after play resumed. However, the remainder of the third quarter was impressively dominated by Milltownpass, who scored an unanswered 1-4 in the process. The goal was gifted somewhat to Evan Gorman in the 14th minute, but he took his opportunity with aplomb. The white flags were shared between Brennan (three, including two frees) and defender Alan Farrell (at the end of a flowing move).

Green and gold-clad fans had their hopes raised by a Dolan point (following a quickly-taken free by Stone) and a neat finish by Dan Heavin (at the end of a counterattack after Kelly had missed a goal chance). The latter made amends with a fisted point (after great work from the hard-working Noel O’Reilly), but Kelly soon spurned another chance of a three-pointer (on this occasion denied by Jordan Nugent).

These misses might have proven fatal on another day, but Milltownpass still had enough in hand to pounce for the next four points between the 54th and 61st minutes, courtesy of Evan Gorman (following a poor Castledaly kick-out), a fisted effort from Liam O’Reilly (after a great piece of fielding by Sam Duncan), Kelly again, and Liam Gorman (shortly after Ruairí Coyne had pulled off a great save from Dolan at the other end). Duncan got the point his efforts deserved deep into added-time, with Aaron Nugent wrapping up the scoring with a consolation point for Castledaly.

Scorers – Milltownpass: E Gorman 1-1, L Brennan (3f), B Kelly 0-4 each, L Gorman 0-2, A Farrell, L O’Reilly, S Duncan, S Corcoran 0-1 each. Castledaly: L Dolan 1-2, F Hynes (f), A Stone, D Heavin, A Nugent, J Coughlan 0-1 each.

Milltownpass: Ruairí Coyne; Michael McCormack, Niall Manning, Alan Farrell; Liam O’Reilly, Noel O’Reilly, Shane Flanagan; Sam Duncan, Gavin Glennon; Liam Gorman, Shane Corcoran, Tony Loftus; Liam Brennan, Evan Gorman, Brandon Kelly. Subs used: Eoghan Gallagher for Flanagan (57), Darragh O’Connor for Corcoran (60+1), Gareth O’Connor for Brennan (60+3).

Castledaly: Jordan Nugent; Shane Dolan, Liam Fitzpatrick, David Dolan; Michael Lynch, John Warburton, Shane Fitzpatrick; Fergal Hynes, Alan Stone; Cathal Dolan, Dan Heavin, Adam Turley; Justin Coughlan, Lorcan Dolan, Aaron Nugent. Subs used: Daragh Kelly for D Dolan (inj., 20), Emmett Heavin for C Dolan (h-t), George Kearney for Coughlan (41), Aaron Sheerin for L Fitzpatrick (53), Liam Fitzpatrick for Stone (inj., 57).

Ref: Enda Kenny (Ballinagore).