In a week that was full of injuries, departures and absentees, St. Kevin’s found an extra gear to come up with a massive, yet deserved, two points that could well be a major turning point in their season.
From minute one to sixty St. Kevins led the tie in what was an impeccable evening for football, and a new look inside forward line of Paul Duff and Evan Doheny with talisman Tom Matthews often was the answer in crucial moments.
Paul Duff got the scoring underway in less than a minute with a nice handpassing move leading to a nice kick from close to the 45 to settle some personal nerves. Lee Crosbie, who was influential throughout, had one of his finest performances in a Philipstown shirt scoring 1-5, but the opening goal after 18 minutes, which came in soccer style, with his weaker foot seemed to fill the rest of his team with a confidence, which had yet to of been seen this season, and they never looked back.
A free from an impossible angle from Cameron Maher got the crowd going before the first goal, but it was his skewed attempt of the same effort that gifted the Kevin’s their second goal of the evening when Evan Doheny and Karl Martin recycled a hopeless ball nicely to find Matthews who volleyed home from close range.
Frees from Crosbie kept his side ticking over until half time, which they comfortably led 2-8 to 0-04. Danny Crosbie was shown his first start of the campaign and seemed to have taken his opportunity with both hands often giving his team an easy outlet from kickouts with daggers to his brother Lee, or to wing backs Darren McMullan and Josh McArdle Lynch.
O’Connell’s looked like a different team in the second half, having a lot more possession and promising attacks but they seemed to go for goals too soon resulting in a lot of poor turnovers deep in the Philipstown third.
After a mishap in the Philipstown goal from an effort which looked to be sailing over from an O’Connell’s forward landed in the net (almost identical to a goal conceded last week), Thomas Macnamee’s men showed character that they didn’t seem to possess seven days ago.
Karl Martin effortlessly skipped by his man late on to open a massive gap in a depleted O’Connell’s defence leaving him through on goal, but he unselfishly fisted to ball across the box to Matthews who bravely thumped home his second to secure the victory in Castlebellingham. Karl Martin, Darren McMullan and Eoin McKenna all had stellar performances for Macnamee’s team, but it was ultimately Lee Crosbie who stepped up in the absence of some senior players to carry his side on from minute one.
Team: Danny Crosbie, Eoin McKenna, Finbarr Lynch, Dylan Maher, Josh McArdle Lynch, Cameron Maher (0-2), Darren McMullan (0-1), Conor Rogers, Evan Maher, Karl Martin (0-3), Lee Crosbie (1-5), Keelan Maher, Evan Doheny, Paul Duff (0-1), Tom Matthews (2-1). Adam Cromwell (0-1) for Evan Doheny
St. Kevins host Kilkerley Emmets on Saturday at 7:30 in the 6th round of the league where they’ll be looking to add to the performance put on in The Grove.
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