Cappagh 1-11
Ardclouch 1-4
Tom Cross Junior Football Championship
Cappagh ground out a relatively comfortable victory in a sun-kissed St Conleth's Park on Sunday evening as they emerged from a pretty dull opening round championship affair with seven points to spare. There could be no arguments over who were the better side in this game, but had Shane Harris not performed so admirably for the eventual winners, they could have been in serious trouble.
Ardclough got off to a great start in this tie, with the lively Jack Bambrick opening the scoring after embarking on a meandering run that culminated in him splitting the posts from about 35 metres out on the left wing.
Cappagh soon settled into the game however, and they found a bit of momentum as scores from Christopher Murray, James Grogan and a trio of points saw them sail into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead after 22 minutes.
Both sides lost a man each through injury in the 19th minute, as a sickening accidental clash between Cappagh's William McDonald and Tony Clarke of Ardclough resulted in both men needing to be replaced, with McDonald looking taking a bang to his head and Clarke was spotted with his right arm in a sling soon after.
Ardclough were hugely wasteful on front of goal, and they were guilty of missing some very straightforward frees, but they were given a lifeline in the 24th minute of the contest when Gary Finneran fisted in a goal as Bambrick's point attempt dropped short.
A point from a free from Dean Brennan was followed by a superb score from Harris after a free-flowing team move, while Ardclough could only respond through a free from Barry Molloy before the interval to leave the scores at 0-7 to 1-2 in Cappagh's favour.
There was no real upgrade in the quality of the football upon the restart either, with both sides seemingly labouring towards the inevitable conclusion of a Cappagh win, though the performance of Shane Harris was a slight bright spark in the midst of a dull contest.
He kicked a fantastic score within minutes of the restart to send his side three points clear, but a score from Barry Molloy threatened to spark a bit of a revival for the north Kildare side. It didn't come to pass however, as Ronan Walsh effectively killed off the tie with a superb goal, angling a powerful drive into the bottom left corner of Johnny Reeves' net. Another brace of scores from Harris helped to really finish out the game strongly for Cappagh, with Michael Brennan raising a white flag with an effort at the other end to mark Adrclough's solitary reply.
Both sides will need to improve immensely on Sunday's performance if they are to make it towards the latter stages of this season's competition, but Cappagh will at least have something to build on.
Scorers for Cappagh: S Harris 0-7(4f), R Walsh 1-0, J Grogan 0-2, M Brennan and C Murray 0-1 each.
Scorers for Ardclough: G Finneran 1-0, B Molloy 0-2(1f), J Bambrick and M Brennan 0-1 each.
Cappagh
M Connolly; A Duff, P Doran, A Galligan(M Nealon 52mins); L Menton, K Doran, W McDonald(A Morrin 19mins); T Jackman, D Brennan; R Walsh, E Leonard, J Grogan; D Curtin(A Convey h/t), S Harris, C Murray(B Dillon h/t).
Ardclough
J Reeves; T McCarty, J Coulston, M Brennan; T Clarke(G Finneran 19mins), R Bergin, N Burke; M Staunton(D Kelly 54mins), M Ivers; S McEvoy(D Burke 40mins), B Molloy, J Bambrick; D Nolan, J McGrail, J McCormac.
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