Blackhall Gaels: 2-15 Walterstown: 2-10 

Blackhall Gaels made it two from two on Wednesday night when they defeated Walterstown in the second round of this year's Corn Na Boinne Cup competition.

Building on last week's victory on the road against Rathkenny, the Gaels were keen to put in another solid shift in front of their home crowd on what turned into a beautiful evening for football.

Shooting into the Clubhouse end, Blackhall opened the scoring before doubling their advantage inside 5 minutes. Walterstown got into their rhythm and soon found their scoring boots with a brace themselves. The teams traded scores and although Blackhall held a slender 5-3 lead at the first water break they would find themselves chasing the game shortly after when the visitors hit the front with the games opening goal.

The Gaels, with some youth in their ranks were unfazed and went about reeling in the visitors, who at the 20 minute mark were 1-5 to 0-6 ahead. Blackhall hit 1-3 in the final 10 minutes of the first half with Tadhg Brosnan finding the net for the hosts. Blackhall would lead 1-9 to 1-5 when the teams switched ends.

Within 4 minutes of the restart Blackhall would find the net again, this time Alan Nestor smashed a shot off the crossbar with the umpire indicating that it had crossed the line despite a Blackhall hand finishing the rebound to the net anyway. Blackhall turned in a blistering third quarter performance which put the game almost to bed before the second water break. It was 2-13 to 1-5 before Walterstown found the net again for their second of the evening leaving it 2-13 to 2-5 going into the last quarter.

The lead afforded Blackhall to work their bench in the final quarter with Tom Delany, Conor Duffy, Peter Coakley, Eoin Kiernan and Jack Bracken all entering the game. Blackhall finished the game five points to the good on a score line of 2-15 to 2-10.

Blackhall Gaels: Mark Mullally, Conor Stenson, Donnacha Healy, Hugh Smith, Tom Murphy, Ja O’Loughlin, John Kelly, Paul Kelly 0-2, Robbie McGuinness, Kealan Forde, James Kelly, Dermot Carty 0-1, Alan Nestor 1-6, Tadgh Brosnan 1-3, Luke Jennings 0-1. Subs: Peter Coakley, Conor Duffy 0-1, Tom Delany, Eoin Kiernan 0-1, Jack Bracken

Walterstown Report

Blackhall Gaels sit pretty on top of Group B of the Corn na Boinne, level on points with St Pat’s, after they comfortably accounted for Walterstown in Kilcloon on Wednesday evening. 

Blackhall Gaels: 2-15 Walterstown: 2-10 

Walterstown, on the other hand, have no points on the board having lost out to Duleek-Bellewstown the previous week and will be desperately search for their first win of the 2021 season against the groups’ bottom side Clann na nGael next week. 

The Blacks welcomed back the experienced Cathal Hennelly and Peter Reynolds to their full back line, while Cormac Freeman came in for Conor Lenehan in defence. However, they were without the services of Brian O’Connell who was forced to sit this encounter out having been handed a one match suspension following a straight red card the week previous. Once again Conor Farrelly wasn’t available due to his commitments with the Meath U20 panel, while forward Sam McCabe is still recovering from injury. 

This second round tussle was on a knife edge, in terms of the scoreboard, as the interlude approached. With 26 minutes gone the sides were level (1-5 to 0-8) but before the break the home side tagged on 1-1 to ensure a four point lead at half time.

Midfield man Conor O’Sullivan gears up to contest a throw ball with Blackhall’s Alan Nestor.

And their momentum wasn’t broken by the break either. The came out of the traps with all guns blazing after the turnaround 1-4 without response, to open up an eleven point advantage with 40 minutes on the clock. And it could have been a lot more too had their shooting not let them down so much. 

A goal from Barry O’Connell in the 43rd minute stemmed the tide somewhat and although only five separated the sides at the death, this wasn’t a true reflection of the 60 minutes. 

The home side gave the Walterstown full back line a torrid time, with Alan Nestor particularly causing havoc in the first half. The Blacks also struggled with their own kick outs, while breaking ball just didn’t go their way on the night whatsoever. Had Blackhall been more clinical in front of the posts, then the curtains wouldn’t have been drawn on this one a lot earlier than they actually were. 

To be fair to the Blacks, the above mentioned absentees certainly didn’t help their cause and with the Intermediate Championship draw due to take place on Sunday, they will be hoping and praying they will have a full deck of cards to play with by time the main act gets underway. 

BLACKHALL GAELS: Mark Mullally; Conor Stenson, Donnacha Healy, Hugh Smith; Tom Murphy, Ja O’Loughlin, John Kelly; Paul Kelly, Robbie McGuinness; Kealan Forde, James Kelly, Dermot Carty; Alan Nestor, Tadgh Brosnan, Luke Jennings. SUBS: Peter Coakley, Conor Duffy, Tom Delany, Eoin Kiernan, Jack Bracken. 

WALTERSTOWN: John Davis; Peter Reynolds, Cathal Hennelly, Cormac Freeman; Mark McCormack, Alan Wall, Aron McLoughlin; Barry O’Connell 1-3, Conor O’Sullivan; Adam Treanor, Alban Crosbie 0-1 (1f), Davy Donnellan 0-1; Stephen Davis 1-1 (1f), Ruairí O’Dowd 0-3, Robbie Cunningham. SUBS: Conor Lenehan, Joey Coogan, Stephen O’Keeffe 0-1, Adam Barrett. 

REFEREE: Liam Reddy

Tweet

Most Read Stories