Lissycasey’s best just isn’t good enough

St Joseph’s 3-5 Lissycasey 1-10

ALTHOUGH they were out of contention for championship honours before they lined out for this tie at Éire Óg on Saturday, underdogs Lissycasey produced their best display of the campaign but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from going down by a point to St Joseph’s.

St Joseph’s 3-5 Lissycasey 1-10

ALTHOUGH they were out of contention for championship honours before they lined out for this tie at Éire Óg on Saturday, underdogs Lissycasey produced their best display of the campaign but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from going down by a point to St Joseph’s.
The result means that the Doora-Barefield outfit qualify for the quarter-finals as the winners of the group.
Lissycasey followers will wonder if they would still be in the running for the title had they played like this in the earlier rounds. Their attention will now turn to the battle to save their senior status. On Saturday, they fielded a side without the injured Seán Hill (he did enter the action during the course of the game), Martin O’Connor, Anthony Kelly, Francis Hayes and Alan Nagle, all of whom had played in the earlier rounds.
St Joseph’s, for their part, were near full strength although they did start without Cathal O’Sullivan and Eoin Kane, both of whom were introduced during the course of the game.
St Joseph’s dominated the early exchanges but they failed to turn early dominance into scores. Their first-half goal came from corner-forward Christy O’Brien following a defensive error from Lissycasey and it helped them to be on level terms at half-time when the score was 1-3 to 0-6.
The Doora-Barefield men should, however, have been in front at this point but missed chances in the first half had proven costly. Lissycasey, without a number of first-choice players due to injury, had kicked some impressive points through David Considine and Paudie Carmody.
The winners started the second half well and opened up a six-point lead helped by a goal from the penalty spot by their goalkeeper Declan O’Keeffe and another from substitute Eoin Kane.
Just when it looked like they might pull away, Lissycasey hit back and points from Derek McMahon, Carmody and Considine were followed by a Ger Murphy goal to level the game yet again.
From here to the finish, they was little if anything between the sides until Colm Mullen landed what proved to be the winning points with three minutes to play.
Mullen again kicked some excellent points and also helped set up some good scoring opportunities.

St Joseph’s: Declan O’Keeffe; Ger Fannin, Kevin Dilleen, Seán Flynn; Keith Whelan Damian Kennedy, Stephen Collins; Mark Hallonan, Mark Raftery; Ivor White, Colm Mullen, Paul Dullaghan; Enda Lyons, David O’Brien, Christy O’Brien.
Subs: Niall White for Kennedy; Cathal O’Sullivan for I White; Eoin Kane for Dullaghan; Gavin O’Sullivan for C O’Brien; Cathal Nolan for Mullen.
Scorers:  Christy O’Brien, Declan O’Keeffe (penalty), Eoin Kane (1-0) each; Colm Mullen (0-4), Enda Lyons (0-1).
Comment: “We were very lucky to win this one as Lissycasey played very well. A draw would probably have been the fair result. Our aim at the outset was to reach the play-offs and we have achieved that target,” John Halpin, St Joseph’s manager.

Lissycasey: Joe Hayes, Michael Melican, James Kelly, Niall Kelly; Ger Murphy, Danny Clohessy, Cathal Hill; Enda Finnucane, Matt O’Shea; Derek McMahon, Paudie Carmody, Danny Lynch; Paul Nagle, Colin Lynch, David Considine.
Subs: Seán Hill for N Kelly; Oisín Talty for P Nagle; Dermot Nagle for D McMahon.
Scorers: Ger Murphy (1-1); David Considine (0-4), Paudie Carmody (0-2), Danny Lynch, Derek McMahon, Matt O’Shea (0-1) each.
Comment: “It was all about restoring some pride this evening after the disapppointment of losing our opening two games. The big battle for us is coming up in the relegation play-off,” Cathal Talty, Lissycasey selector.

Referee: John Brew, Kilmurry-Ibrickane.