Moynalvey/Boardsmill played Dunderry in the shield semi final last Thursday evening on “Patsys field” in Boardsmill.
Our backs played in flying columns up and down the tramlines and our forwards behaved like dark raiders (pro-kabadi) making regular and effective assaults on the Dunderry goal. Cathal Slevin played in goals and made fantastic saves with both legs and hands. The biggest improvement in his play were his kick outs, distributed in an accurate arc between 30 and 60° in the direction of midfield and wing backs. Dylan Anthenson with his side guards Eoin McLoughlin and Tadhg Cotter defended the fullback line as if the lives depended on it. (Tadhg wore out his fingernails pulling their jerseys!) At halfback Timothy Halton, fresh from running in the community games last weekend, surely ran 10K in tracking his man up and down the field. He also used his trusty left foot to give good ball into the forwards. Ciaran McLoughlin on the other wing reminded me of “red Collier” as he intercepted and soloed forwards getting one mighty score from 30metres that would have ended up in the main street Ballivor only for the ditch at the end of the pitch.
Sean Deegan got our first goal with a volleyball type slam into the net. Charlie McCormack in his new role at half forward also got an early well taken point. Vinny Walsh really enjoyed the game and was one of the main play makers in the forwards. The engine of this team was at midfield where Niall Bagnall and Jim Roche worked tirelessly intercepting and setting up attacks. Niall also got an excellent goal in the second half. Evan Clarke played very well and helped himself to 2 goals in the second half dodging and weaving his way through the Dunderry backs. It has to be said that Dunderry played very well and they showed some skill and pace in this well balanced match. (Two of the Dunderry players have grannies and relations in Moynalvey -The Gilsenans and the Walshes).
Halftime score was 1-5 to 1-2 in favour of Moynalvey Boardsmill and went on to eventually win the match. There was great sideline support from both sides. The dunderry support tried every trick in the book to aid their team ,including releasing a large black-and-white collie onto the pitch in the second half to try and disrupt the play. (I blame the Newmans!).Over the years we have got used to such underhand tactics.
So now we prepare for the final next week and we will have some players including our Paul Corcoran back from holidays to reinforce our team.
(Report & Photos with Thanks to Frank O’Sullivan)
