Aylward hat-trick knocks St. Joseph"s out

The dreams of all involved with St. Joseph"s, Rochfortbridge of reaching their first ever Leinster Colleges senior football "A" final were shattered at Timahoe in County Laois, when a superior Good Counsel side from New Ross emerged as 11-point winners.Cormac Davey"s charges were many people"s favourites to at least reach a Leinster final this year but the Wexford school had other ideas.Inspired, ironically, by a Kilkenny lad, Ger Aylward at centre half forward, the 1999 Hogan Cup champions looked the likely victors from an early stage of the contest, the commencement of which was infuriatingly delayed for a whopping 45 minutes due to the referee allegedly mistaking the throw-in time.The Westmeath lads were still there or thereabouts at the interval, with a combination of goalkeeper and crossbar preventing Donal Hickey from scoring what would have been a tonic goal in the 29th minute. However, a couple of missed frees on the change of ends signalled the beginning of the end for the St. Joseph"s challenge. While an 11-point losing margin does scant justice to the Rochfortbridge side"s efforts, there can be no denying that the better team qualified for a showdown with St. Mary"s, Edenderry, who were narrow winners over another Lake County nursery, Moate Community School, in the other penultimate round tie.When the game eventually got under way the New Ross boys were the quicker out of the starting blocks and were well worth their 0-3 to 0-0 lead by the seventh minute. Overlapping wing back, Michael Curtis opened the scoring after only 45 seconds and further points followed from lively corner forward, Graham Cullen and a well-taken free from his hands by midfielder Declan Murphy. In sporadic St. Joseph"s attacks, Eoin Gorman was twice wide, from a lineball and from open play. At the midpoint of the half, Declan Murphy increased the winners" advantage with an opportunist point before the lads in navy and blue eventually opened their account, courtesy of a pointed free from 30 metres by Clive Kiernan.This score spurred the losers into action and, with Wayne Fox further out the field, the "Bridge lads applied pressure on the Good Counsel goal, but they failed to add to their meagre tally. They were made to regret this wastefulness when a move inspired by centre half back James Breen ended with Ger Aylward fly-kicking the ball to the net, at the second attempt.With five minutes of normal time remaining, Jamie Gonoud was prominent in a passage of play which ended with Eoin Gorman kicking a tremendous point for St. Joseph"s. Some four minutes later, came the aforementioned Donal Hickey chance and the losers" bad luck continued when a massive free from Eoin Gorman shaved the upright on the wrong side. A terrific point in the first minute of injury-time from Mark Conroy reduced the deficit, but the margin could have been even closer if the referee had awarded a free in to Donal Hickey which he certainly appeared to have earned. Instead, he earned a yellow card for his justifiable protests. At the break, Good Counsel led by1-4 to 0-3.Less than four minutes into the second moiety, the New Ross lads went five points ahead with a neat score from Graham Cullen, either side of which Clive Kiernan was crucially short with two scoreable frees. This profligacy again came back to haunt the Westmeath boys when Ger Aylward pounced for his second goal, leaving St. Joseph"s with a mountain to climb, a task, frankly, they never looked likely to achieve. With exactly nine minutes on the clock, Paul Lewis kicked a fine point from 35 metres but his opposite number 9, Declan Murphy responded with another point from a tricky free.It was all over bar the shouting in the 18th minute when Ger Aylward displayed his soccer skills by calmly side-footing home his third goal. The Aylward show continued when he dissected the posts from a 35-metre lineball, the ball still rising as it hit the protective net behind the goal area. He then very nearly nabbed his fourth goal but the crossbar came to St. Joseph"s rescue and Mark Conroy"s 25th-minute point was very much a consolation score. To compound the losers" woes, their poor disciplinary record continued right to the bitter end - the suspended Jason Cully was a huge loss last Saturday - with substitute Stephen Cooney being red-carded in the dying moments. Winning the North Leinster League title was a significant achievement for a small school like St. Joseph"s but, sadly, they never got out of the traps last weekend.Good Counsel, New Ross: Sean O"Gorman; Matthew Cody, Matt Crowdle, Michael Furlong; Alan Nolan, James Breen, Michael Curtis (0-1); Matthew O"Hanlon, Declan Murphy (0-3, 0-2 from frees); Lorcan French, Ger Aylward (3-1, 0-1 from a lineball), Eoin Mythen; Graham Cullen (0-2), Shane Bradley, David Larkin. Subs: Ian Duggan (for Mythen, half-time), Nickey Doyle (for Bradley, 47 mins), Dylan Mernagh (for Cullen, 57 mins).St. Joseph"s, Rochfortbridge: Paul Coates; Stephen Hannon, Mark Gorman, Eoin Rigney; Sean Deegan, Paul Carey, Shane Brogan; Eoin Gorman (0-1), Paul Lewis (0-1); Mark Conroy (0-2), Clive Kiernan (0-1, from a free), Jamie Gonoud; Cormac Boyle, Wayne Fox, Donal Hickey. Subs: Paul Rabbitte (for Hickey, 42 mins), Stephen Cooney (for Kiernan, 45 mins), Cian Flynn (for Deegan, 51 mins), Cathal O"Reilly (for E. Gorman, 58 mins).Referee: Pat Moran (Laois).