Gavigan on form as St Malachy’s sink Rosemount

St Malachy’s 2-9 Rosemount 0-11

Down a man to a red card and losing two key stars to injury during the game did little to hamper the clinical nature of St Malachy’s, as they maintained their quest for intermediate championship glory by defeating Rosemount at TEG Cusack Park last Sunday.

A depleted Rosemount side lacked an injection of potency in the forward third in perfect playing conditions. At no stage from the game's opening score inside 60 seconds did Kenny McKinley’s men relinquish their lead. And despite some strong performances from Andy McCormack, Declan Mullen and David Tone for Rosemount, their challenge never really hit any great heights.

It was Cian Gavigan who hit that opener with a well-taken score from mid-range. With no scoring for over six minutes, the next flag raised would be a green one. A lofted free from Westmeath star David Lynch was kept in-play before being bundled to the net by Conor Murphy (a late change instead of Darren Ruane at corner-forward) despite appearing to be on the verge of being cleared by the men in amber.

David Tone did get Rosemount going with a curling effort from inside the 45 having dipped his run twice in the buildup. Scores were swapped at either end in the coming ten minutes with Rosemount hitting four of those – three via the free-taking ability of Mullen from close-range.

Play was halted briefly for an injury to Shane Clavin and despite initial calls for his replacement, he soldiered on. Cian Gavigan continued to draw applause from the crowd with his off-the-floor free-taking exploits, clearing the crossbar with ease from 50 yards and beyond at times.

Malachy’s hit a second goal just before the break. Yet again, a floated high ball caused panic as Gavigan– having rounded Cillian Lawlor in goals – laid off to Jack Gallagher to hammer home.

A nice reply from Luke Kelly meant that the end-to-end final few minutes left the score at 2-5 to 0-7 in favour of the Castletown men at the break.

Those anticipating some dramatic suspense in the second half were sorely disappointed as the game drifted into somewhat of a lull, broken further by injury-related stoppages. The eight second-half scores were shared four apiece, with the majority coming from frees. Gavigan and Lynch put two goals between the side early in the half, both from frees.

With Shane Clavin succumbing to an injury picked up in the first half and the loss of Aonghus Clarke to his own misfortune soon afterwards, Malachy’s needed to keep cool. Moments after goalkeeper Alan Mangan (also the Castletown Geoghegan hurling manager) recovered from his own injury, Lynch was given a second yellow card and for a few moments there was a sense of hope for Rosemount, especially when it was followed by two Mullen frees.

Rosemount will be disappointed not to have done more to find the net, with Mullen and Ben Cox both seeing efforts blocked.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, the men in black and red pushed on and two more frees from Gavigan and Shane Corcoran were enough to get their team relatively comfortably over the line and into the final four. Des Collins and Alan 'Murph' Mullen and co could only look on as the chance of glory evaded Rosemount.

Man of the match: Naoise McKenna (St Malachy’s). For defensive solidity, McKenna takes it ahead of Cian Gavigan. McKenna cut out several attacks and, with his solid defending, he was a real thorn in Rosemount's side throughout. Wasn't afraid to tackle even when on a yellow card from the 14th minute onwards.

Score of the match: Morgan Gavigan’s left-footed point on 15 minutes was a fine score at the end of a lung-bursting run.

What it means: St Malachy’s head to a semi-final against Section A winners, Tubberclair, while Rosemount face another year at least in the intermediate grade.

Scorers - St Malachy’s: J Gallagher 1-1, C Gavigan 0-4 (3 frees), C Murphy 1-0, D Lynch 0-2 (2f), M Gavigan and S Corcoran (f) 0-1 each. Rosemount: D Mullen 0-7 (6f), D Tone 0-3, L Kelly 0-1.

St Malachy’s: Alan Mangan; Eoin Kiernan, Aaron Glennon, Naoise McKenna; Shane Clavin, Peter Murphy, Aonghus Clarke; David Lynch, Johnny Bermingham; Cian Gavigan, Shane Corcoran, Morgan Gavigan; Jack Gallagher, Niall O’Brien, Conor Murphy. Subs used: Darren Ruane for Clavin (inj., 34 mins), Neal Kirby for Clarke (inj., 43), Odhran Gavigan for Corcoran (58), David Maloney for Kiernan (60+1).

Rosemount: Cillian Lawlor; Ben O’Brien, Adam Keane, Luke Kelly; Lorcan Daly, Pádraig Nestor, Darragh Healy; Andy McCormack, Declan Mullen; David O’Reilly, Matthew Cox, Plunkett Maxwell; Cathal Daly, Ben Cox, David Tone. Subs used: Liam Maxwell for M Cox (40 mins), Cathal Byrne for Healy (57).

Referee: Shane Maher (Ballynacargy).