Tubberclair ease into last four with emphatic victory over Wexford side

Tubberclair 2-27, St Martin's (Wexford) 0-1

By Paul Hughes

Tubberclair are through the Leinster Club IFC semi-finals but will have learned little or nothing after ruthlessly dismantling a makeshift and limited St Martin’s (Wexford) side on the floodlit 4G pitch at Dovida Lakepoint Park, Mullingar, last Saturday afternoon. The Westmeath intermediate champions had a mini-scare against Kilkenny’s Mullinavat in their opening tie but no such scenario was ever on the cards here, with Tubberclair utterly dominant in all sectors against the weakened Wexford kingpins.

With the hurlers from St Martin’s facing into a Leinster Club SHC semi-final next weekend, a host of their regular starters on the football side were rested, with nine changes to the XV listed on the match programme. The limitations that the absence of these dual players imposed on the Murrintown outfit were obvious from the throw-in.

In one of the most one-sided first halves this scribe has ever seen, Tubberclair led 2-16 to nil without ever really needing to move up a gear. The lively Kealan Connell hit the net twice and with the likes of Matthew Whittaker, James Madden and Fred Kelleher also firing on all cylinders, Keith Higgins’ and Daniel Sammon’s charges were never troubled.

To compound matters for the gallant visitors, they lost co-captain Sam Audsley to an early injury, and by the time the Maroons finally notched their first and only point (39 minutes), Tubberclair already had 2-20 on the scoreboard.

There were few wides in this game, telling a story of how accurate Tubberclair were as much as the paucity of opportunities conjured by St Martin’s. The south Westmeath side were unbeatable under the kickout, bossed possession and moved the ball about with ease.

Despite missing one of their key forwards in Tom Bourke (injured), the men in green and gold put on an exhibition in attack and, but for some heroics from St Martin’s netminder Ryan Sinnott, their winning margin could have been much greater.

Amid the twilight and drizzle, Tubberclair held all the cards after the first quarter, leading 0-6 to nil. Matthew Whittaker, operating in a more advanced role than the programme suggested, kicked two fine points and hit the upright, while Fred Kelleher (0-3, a free and a two-pointer) and Kealan Connell (after a one-two with Daire O’Connor) also hit the target.

O’Connor then finished off a fine run with a point before Connell, with 18 minutes gone, struck the first goal on the rebound after Ryan Sinnott parried a shot from the intrepid James Madden.

St Martin’s, struggling to make any inroads, only had about two shots in anger during the first half while Tubberclair continued to pick off scores, with Finn Duffy (0-3, one from play), Madden, Eoghan McCabe (a free), O’Connor and Connell putting 17 between the sides.

The impressive Madden added his second on the stroke of 30 minutes but should really have been closed down by his marker, while Taylor Slevin teed up Fred Kelleher for another point to make it 1-16 to nil.

Additional stoppage time due to an injury to referee Colm McCullough meant there was still time for more, and before the short whistle, Kealan Connell danced through the St Martin’s defence before slotting to the net off his left foot.

Some sort of a bounce was expected from the visitors after the restart but it never materialised, and within six minutes Tubberclair added four more scores from McCabe, Duffy (frees), Paul Keegan (an excellent hoofed effort) and sub Oisín O’Meara. Another replacement, Paul Garvey, almost had a goal but Ryan Sinnott was equal to his shot.

After over 40 minutes of football, the Wexford champions finally avoided the dreaded “nul points” when their best player, centre forward Conor Coleman, divided the posts.

But Tubberclair conceded no more and further added to their tally with points from O’Meara, Duffy, Madden (nicely assisted by Tom Kelleher), sub Conor Elliott and midfielder Seán Claffey.

Claffey’s point came seconds after Ryan Sinnott made another tremendous save to keep out a shot from Fred Kelleher. Earlier, the St Martin’s ‘keeper also came to the rescue when some calamitous defending left Oisín O’Meara ideally placed for another Tubberclair goal.

Elliott fired wide with four minutes to go as Tubberclair hunted that third goal, but they got the next best thing on 57 minutes when Fred Kelleher produced another superb two-pointer to round off a 32-point victory.

St Martin’s, to their credit, kept their heads held high and Coleman went close with a brace of two-point efforts late on, before sub Diarmuid Barry drew a stoppage-time save out of Tubberclair’s Kevin Fagan after a well-worked move.

However, not even a flurry of late concessions would have taken away from Tubberclair’s dominance here, and they advance to an away semi-final against Louth’s Hunterstown Rovers on Saturday week.

Scorers - Tubberclair: K Connell 2-2, F Kelleher 0-6 (1f, 2 2pt), F Duffy 0-5 (3f), J Madden 0-3, M Whittaker, D O’Connor, E McCabe (frees) and O O’Meara 0-2 each, P Keegan, C Elliott and S Claffey 0-1 each. St Martin’s: C Coleman 0-1.

Tubberclair: Kevin Fagan; Stephen McGonagle, Cathal Tighe, Taylor Slevin; James Madden, Tom Kelleher, Matthew Whittaker; Seán Claffey, Eoghan McCabe; Paul Keegan, Fred Kelleher, Finn Duffy; Kealan Connell, Daire O’Connor, Gavin Delaney. Subs used: Oisín O’Meara for Delaney (32), Paul Garvey for McCabe (32), Niall Walker for Tighe (41), Conor Elliott for Whittaker (43), Matthew Lynch for Connell (49).

St Martin’s (Wexford): Ryan Sinnott; Leo Barry, Jamie Berry, Eoin Sinnott; Cormac Simpson, Mark Hennessy, Sam Audsley; Paddy O’Connor, Eoin Ormonde; Brian Codd, Conor Coleman, Zach Breslin; Oisín Waters, Oisín Kavanagh, Callum McCleane. Subs used: Diarmuid Barry for Audsley (inj., 10), Kevin O’Mahony for P O’Connor (h-t), Rory Devereux for Hennessy (38), Paddy Walsh for Kavanagh (45), John Dwyer for L Barry (45).

Referee: Colm McCullough (Louth).