Leinster SFC: Tinahely 2-5 Portarlington 0-10
Tinahely pulled off a shock by dumping Portarlington out of the Leinster Club SFC following an entertaining Round 1 clash in O’Moore Park.
The Wicklow outfit held on for a one-point victory and will advance to play Tullamore in the quarter-final next weekend.
Tinahely, who had only won their first Wicklow title in 40 years eight days ago, were as big as 13-2 with the bookies but goals from Matthew Ging and Eoin Darcy helped them turn the odds.
Portarlington won the Laois SFC three weeks ago but the team that took to the field in this game was much different from the one that dismantled Portlaoise in that game.
County final man of the match Colm Murphy, Paddy O’Sullivan and Robbie Pigott have all returned to Australia while midfielder Eoin McCann also missed out as he is away travelling.
Despite all of that, Pat Roe’s charges had more than enough chances to win this one and will be left with plenty of regrets as to how they went out.
They had enough chances to win two matches, taking just 10 out of 27 chances created over the course of the hour. And they had late chances to force extra time only to run into dead ends and for Tinahely to hold them out.
The game began with Jake Foster and Paddy O’Rourke trading points before Port enjoyed a purple patch with Jason Moore, Daragh Galvin and Alex Mohan all pointing.
But it was level in the 13th minute. An absolutely brilliant pass from Cillian McDonald was won well by Matthew Ging who danced around a couple of Port challenges and finished really well.
Rioghan Murphy hit back but Tinahely had their second goal after 19 minutes. Eoin Darcy had been relatively quiet up to that point but he did brilliantly with a wonderful sidestep to create space for himself and then a brilliant finish to the bottom corner.
Ronan Coffey replied with a free but Tinahely kicked the last two points of the half via Matthew Ging to lead 2-3 to 0-6 at the break.
Port improved when play resumed as Foster scored twice and they were level when Coffey pointed a free after a foul on Jason Moore.
Yet Tinahely nudged ahead with a Ging free and the same player put them two ahead on 56 minutes. Port cut the gap to one via Rioghan Murphy and had late chances to force extra time but Tinahely held on.
TINAHELY: Alan Nolan; Kevin Mulhall, Michael Byrne, Bradley Hickey; James Hedderman, Noel Mulhall, Cillian McDonald; Eoghan Byrne, Daniel Hedderman; Larry Kinsella, Eoin Darcy (1-0), Paddy O’Rourke (0-1); Matthew Ging (1-4, two frees), Rory Stokes, Jason Cush. Subs: Thomas Kelly for Stokes (45), Shane Hogan for O’Rourke (49), Brian Walsh for J Hedderman (49), Peter Stapleton for D Hedderman (55)
PORTARLINGTON: Luke O’Reilly; Cathal Bennett, Mikey Bennett, Alex Mohan (0-1); Jordan Fitzpatrick, Jason Moore (0-1), Darragh Slevin; Keith Bracken, Rioghan Murphy (0-1); Sean Michael Corcoran, Ronan Coffey (0-3, three frees), Colin Slevin; Jake Foster (0-3, one free), Darragh Galvin (0-1, one mark) Corey Lyons. Subs: Graham Weldon for Lyons (26)
REFEREE: Fergal Kelly (Longford)
