Moore the man as Ringtown defeat out of sorts Cullion

Ringtown 1-15

Cullion 0-11

Last year’s intermediate champions Ringtown kept their momentum going with this rather easy win against a Cullion side who plied their trade in Senior A last year but looked a pale shadow of that team in TEG Cusack Park on Sunday evening last.

Never headed at any stage, Ringtown could afford to hit 13 wides over the hour but still win comfortably against a Cullion team bereft of many of last year’s starters through a myriad of reasons and in truth the seven point gap does not flatter them in the slightest.

Cullion struggled right from the throw-in and could not get any continuity at any stage of the game. Despite large periods of possession in the second half they made scant use of it.

You'd certainly wonder where they go from here, while for the Whitehall men it's onwards and upwards. With points in the bag, they will now fancy their chances.

The opening quarter belonged entirely to Ringtown and they hit Cullion for 1-6 without reply: Mark Cunningham scoring two fine points; Luke Moore chipping-in with two frees and an excellently finished goal; and Ryan McAuley and Emmett Corrigan raising white flags as they blitzed Cullion early doors and indeed could have, and should have, had more such was their superiority.

Jack Galvin from a free and Donal Mulvihill from the resultant puck out got Cullion off the mark but they too were guilty of some glaring misses. Luke Moore and Kevin Regan exchanged frees as the game became somewhat of a contest at last then the former scored a beauty from play only to see the latter reply again from another placed ball.

The game dipped considerably though for a period, before Regan (free) and Jamie Kindregan (from some awful Ringtown defending) saw Cullion claim the last two points of the half to trail 1-8 to 0-6 at the short whistle. They were lucky to be just five behind, in truth.

Regan narrowed the gap immediately on the restart with another free, but Cullion could not keep that momentum going.

Moore added two softly conceded frees for Ringtown to keep them in the ascendancy. Regan replied again with a super score from play, but Corrigan (a sublime solo effort), Cunningham after getting two bites at the cherry, and another Moore free saw Ringtown increase the gap to eight again.

Jack Galvin for Cullion and Moore again for Ringtown exchanged points but the game then hit a huge dip and the next 10 minutes were instantly forgettable. Cullion sub Damian Golden had a great effort denied by a wonderful save from Pat Burke while Regan pointed from almost 90 yards from a free as the game began to fizzle out.

Corrigan got Ringtown’s last score of the game with the point of the match while Regan got Cullion's after going for goal and again being denied by Burke. At that stage, however, it was mere window dressing as Ringtown had long settled the game as a contest and cruised to a facile seven point win.

Scorers - Ringtown: Luke Moore 1-8 (6f), Emmett Corrigan 0-3, Mark Cunningham 0-3, Ryan McAuley 0-1 .

Cullion: Kevin Regan 0-6 (4f), Jack Gillen 0-3 (2f), Jamie Kindregan and Donal Mulvihill 0-1 each.

Ringtown: Pat Burke; Sean Cunningham, Ryan Moore, Niall Moran; Charles Flynn, Darren Kilcoyne, Dominic Flynn; Mark Cunningham, Conor O’Grady; Sean Boylan, Emmett Corrigan, Kevin Nea; Ryan McAuley, Luke Moore, Ciaran Moran. Subs: Thomas Daniels for Sean Cunningham 30 mins (inj), Jason Moran for Boylan and Jeffrey Nea for Kevin Nea 44 mins.

Cullion: Conor Kelly; Pearse Shaw, Brendan King, Liam Shaw; Shane O’Connor, Conor Shaw, Andy Connaughton; Jack Galvin, Marc Watters; Jamie Kindregan, Kevin Regan, Pearse Corroon; Brian O’Reilly, James Clarke, Donal Mulvihill. Subs: Damian Golden for King and Mark Whelan for Connaughton 44 mins, Shane Broughan for Waters and Eoin Fox for Mulvihill, Dylan Tone for Pearse Shaw 53 mins.

Referee: James McGrath (Turin).