St Mary’s climb to second after win over Kilbeggan

St Mary’s Rochfortbridge 2-13 Kilbeggan Shamrocks 0-7

By Connla McCarthy

St Mary’s Rochfortbridge inflicted Kilbeggan Shamrocks’ first defeat of the 2024 Westmeath Intermediate Football Championship on quite a nippy afternoon in Milltown last Sunday.

Following this Round 4 clash, the Rochfortbridge men now find themselves a point ahead of the team they beat in the official standings. This sets things up for an interesting final round at the top of Section B.

There was a slow start of the game as both teams favoured long periods of possession while trying to suss out their opponents in the tactical battle. Ryan Judge was called into action in the fourth minute when he denied Mark Wrafter of Kilbeggan a goal, getting his right paw at the ball to deflect it out for a ’45.

Ian Keelan hit the opening score of the match two minutes later with a lovely point before Kilbeggan enjoyed their best period of the match, finding themselves 0-3 to 0-1 up by the 15th minute. Nigel Scally converted the first of his two frees during this period in the ninth minute, scoring again four minutes later, while he also laid off a Darragh Coffey dropping ball into Padraig Carton who converted.

Then came the turning point. Darragh Hall made a bursting run from deep to cut inside the box and slid a low shot into the Kilbeggan net, putting the Rochfortbridge side ahead for the first time.

They added to the lead three minutes later. After a foot block, Ian Keelan stepped up the place his penalty into the top right-hand corner of Niall Rabbitte’s net.

Further scores from Jack Reid, Niall Cully and Keelan had St. Mary’s seven ahead after 21 minutes. Mark Wrafter and Nigel Scally responded for Shamrocks before a fantastic brace from Eddie Alford and a long-range effort off the right foot of Ian Keelan left the Rochfortbridge men 2-7 to 0-6 ahead at the interval.

St Mary’s then scored the next six points in-a-row, and would limit Shamrocks to one point towards the very end of the game, a remarkable defensive feat. Enda Cully kick-started the second-half scoring in the 33rd minute before an Ian Keelan free and a fisted effort by Liam Carey, thanks to a wonderful improvised assist from Darragh Hall, ensured a ten-point lead for the Rochfortbridge men by the 38th minute.

St Mary’s were well in control by this stage and they ended off with points from Jack Reid, Ian Keelan and Eddie Alford in the 55th minute before Padraig Carton punched over Kilbeggan’s response a minute into added time to end the match.

Scorers - St Mary’s: Ian Keelan 1-5 (1-0 pen.; 0-2f), Darragh Hall 1-0, Eddie Alford 0-3, Jack Reid 0-2, Enda Cully, Niall Cully (0-1f) and Liam Carey 0-1 each. Kilbeggan: Nigel Scally 0-4 (0-4f), Padraig Carton 0-2, Mark Wrafter 0-1.

St Mary’s Rochfortbridge: Ryan Judge; Eddie Whelehan, Adam Kavanagh, Tiernan Fallon; Enda Cully, Peter Lawlor, Paul Carey; Sean Lyster, Jake Byrne; Eddie Alford, Ian Keelan, Niall Cully; Jack Reid, Liam Carey, Darragh Hall. Subs: Adam Bradley for I Keelan (49), Brendan Brady for T Fallon (53), Eoin Gorman for L Carey (54), Gerry Byrne for N Cully (57), Tiernan Jessop for J Reid (59).

Kilbeggan Shamrocks: Niall Rabbitte; Martin Ward (black card 44-54), James Fox, Josh Malone; Colin Draper, James Hanlon, Mark Wrafter; Darragh Coffey, Joey O’Neill; Shaun Pidgeon, Padraig Carton, Micheál Coffey; James Finnegan, Nigel Scally, Conor Delaney. Subs: Colm Heffernan for D Coffey (44), Danny Scully for J Finnegan (45), Cathal Finn for C Delaney, Alan Fennell for J Hanlon and Mel Kiernan for C Draper (55).

Referee: Alfie Devine (CFCW).