Wasteful Shandonagh ease past weak Castledaly challenge

Despite shooting a whopping 15 wides – a dozen of them when aided by a useful wind in the first half – Shandonagh still had no difficulty whatsoever in easing past a very disappointing challenge by Castledaly in the first leg of last Saturday evening’s Westmeath football championships double-header, played in very pleasant conditions at TEG Cusack Park.

Ray Sheridan’s troops are expected by many observers to win the Peter Geraghty Cup this year and, on this evidence, they look sure to - at least - feature strongly in the business end of the intermediate championship. For Castledaly, it is a far cry from the heady days of the Flanagan Cup adorning green and gold ribbons back in 2008.

Ironically, Declan Cryan’s charges opened the scoring with a delightful point from Paul Costello in the second minute. However, their opponents soon took over in most areas of the pitch. They registered five points in the opening quarter via three scores – a brace of outstanding two-point frees taken from the ground by Brian Kavanagh and a fine one-pointer from play by Westmeath senior panellist Adam Treanor. They also kicked five wides in the same period, some of them of the poor variety.

Castledaly’s first wide came at the start of the second quarter. That man Kavanagh kicked a great two-pointer from play in the 21st minute and he soon slotted over a one-point free – the award itself seemed soft. The hard-working Kevin Boyle then kicked a two-pointer from play and Boyle added a one-pointer in the 26th minute. At the end of an eminently forgettable first half, Shandonagh led by 0-11 to 0-1.

Within two minutes of the restart, the South Westmeath outfit doubled their tally with a lovely solo point from their most consistent performer on the day, Adam Turley. However, any hopes of a Lazarus-like comeback evaporated some four minutes later when Boyle started an end-to-end move, with this year’s Hogan Cup medallist Rory O’Brien involved twice, eventually slapping the ball to the net for what was a quality goal by any standards.

County panellist Tom Molloy pointed in the 42nd minute, seconds after Castledaly seemed hard done by not to have been awarded a free in at the other end. Costello kicked his second point for the losers, but a ‘3 x 3 breach’ infringement soon allowed Kavanagh to wipe this out from a routine free. When Justin Coughlan teed up John Warburton for a goal chance, the overlapping corner back was denied a fine save from Cian Molloy at the expense of a ‘45’ which former Westmeath player Alan Stone converted in the 50th minute.

With the result not remotely in doubt, the sky blue and navy management were able to rest some key players in the closing stages, yet they still outscored Castledaly by three points (the hard-working Luke Tynan fittingly opened his account, as did sub Simon Carr from play and Ryan Donnelly from a free) to one (via full back Liam Fitzpatrick) to wrap up a very comfortable victory.

Scorers –Shandonagh: B Kavanagh 0-8 (2 2ptf, 1 2pt, 2f), R O’Brien 1-0, K Boyle 0-3 (1 2pt), A Treanor, T Molloy, L Tynan, S Carr, R Donnelly (f) 0-1 each.

Castledaly: P Costello 0-2, A Turley, A Stone (‘45’), L Fitzpatrick 0-1 each.

Shandonagh: Cian Molloy; John Fry, Aaron Craig, Jack O’Brien; Gareth Carr, Adam Treanor, Tom Molloy; Callum Faughnan, Eoin Conlon; Conor McCrossan, Rory O’Brien, Luke Tynan; Ryan Donnelly, Brian Kavanagh, Kevin Boyle. Subs used: Jake Costello for Kavanagh (46), Peadar Glennon for Molloy (52), Simon Carr for Boyle (52), Darren McWade for McCrossan (56), Jack Tynan for Donnelly (60+3).

Castledaly: Cathal Dolan; John Warburton, Liam Fitzpatrick, David Dolan; Shane Dolan, Lorcan Dolan, Jack Kearney; Alan Stone, Paul Costello; Shane Fitzpatrick, Adam Turley, Aaron Sheerin; Justin Coughlan, Aaron Nugent, George Kearney. Subs used: Shaun Kerrigan for G Kearney (h-t), Michael Lynch for S Fitzpatrick (inj., 46), Tom Martin for Costello (inj., 54), Oisín Egan for Coughlan (54).

Ref: Vinny Cox (Rosemount).