London SFC Round 2 2005
Magic
trio top of their class
By
John Collins (Irish World)
St
Brendan's 0-11
Tara
0-5
As
youngsters none of us liked the homework.
Hours apparently wasted sitting writing essays
and doing sums in order to keep the teacher
happy.
In
the long run it was always well worth while
and come exam time those hours spent at the
kitchen table trying to figure out the true
values of x and y really did pay
dividends.
I
suppose for a team that has such strong links
to the seat of learning that is St Mary’s,
then it was little wonder that St Brendan's
had no trouble sitting down to do their
homework on Tara and on the evidence of Sunday
evening, they left no page unturned.
Top
of the class was the running machine that is
better known around Ruislip as Shane McAnarney,
while the two star students for this
particular class were the two men that so much
attention was focused on, corner backs Paul
Tierney and Aiden McLernon.
With
all previous impressive performances from the
Tara featuring strong displays from Chris
Donnellan and Andy Hanley, it was obvious that
St Brendan's had to get to grip with this
talented inside pair and that is something
they achieved with merit.
Tierney
was given the task of trying to shackle
Donnellan, while McLernon had the speedy
Hanley for company and between the two of them
they laid the foundation stone for this St Brendan's
victory.
With
the back door well and truly guarded, it was
left to McAnarney to run riot through the Tara
team and time and again he popped up in
defence only to appear moments later in
attack, with the last of his three points
being a perfect example of his movement, when
he plucked a ball out of the air on the edge
of his own small square, played it out to the
wing and by the time it arrived in the Tara
backline, so McAnarney appeared to slot over.
Phenomenal running, phenomenal awareness and
almost impossible to play against.
Tara
had started with the advantage of the wind and
looked to play high ball into the towering
Paul Hehir on the edge of the square.
Their
inability to get any sort of quality ball into
the target man was a key flaw in their plan
and then when they did get some in inevitably
Tierney, McLernon and full back Ciaran Conway
were there to snuff out the chances.
McAnarney
opened the scoring in the first minutes and it
took Tara eight minutes to land a reply with
Paul Hehir hitting over a
free from 50 yards.
McAnarney
replied immediately as if to stamp his
authority on this game although Senan Hehir
soon equalised again with a fine point from
play.
The
tricky Adrian Brett pushed St Brendan's a
point ahead again on 18 mins and Barry Solan,
who struggled to get into the game early on,
made it a two point advantage with
a free, which Paul Hehir quickly
cancelled out from play.
With
minutes remaining to half time, super boot
Niall Clinton got his first look at the posts
and had no difficulty slotting over, although
Tara came right back with
a fine point from Andy Hanley, with a
move that had started with Tara keeper David
Feeley and included the two Hehirs, before
Mayo man Hanley got his chance.
With
just a point
in it at the break, many were expecting a real
humdinger of a second half, although the
advantage was always going to lie with the
Brendans given that they had the wind at their
backs.
Paul
Hehir landed a point right after the restart
to level things but that was to be his
side’s last score of the game.
The
following thirty minutes proved to be an
exhibition of football from St Brendans and
further emphasised their standing as the most
exciting team in London.
They
defended tenaciously, the played the ball with
speed and intelligence, they didn’t allow
themselves to get dragged into any nonsense,
they took their frees, they played for each
other and they simply blew Tara away.
Such
was their all-round dominance of the game that
they could afford the luxury of having Shane
Manley being well marshalled by James Rafter
for fifty of the sixty minutes of the game,
but as is the case with all quality players,
once the Offaly man got a sniff of the game,
he stood up to be counted in a major way and
guided his team home by a comfortable six
points.
How
good was this Brendan's performance? Well
given the fact that regular London player
Danny O’Connor failed to make an appearance
at any stage will give some indication of how
strong this panel is and certainly any
questions that have been asked of certain key
positions have been more than answered by
Ciaran Conway, Sean McAlinden and Kevin Carey.
Tara
now have to face the tricky task of taking on
Neasden again, hampered by the knowledge that
they played them off the park first time out.
A performance of this quality against Neasden
will result in defeat, so their challenge is
to try and create something decent out of the
ashes of this game.
As
for St Brendan's, well like all good school
children there will be no summer school for
these learners and they can relax in August
safe in the knowledge that they are through to
the sixth consecutive Championship semi-final,
proof that the team that exists now isn’t
there by fluke but is as the result of much
hard graft over the past seven or eight years.
Scorers:
St
Brendan's: N Clinton 0-4 (0-2f, 0-1
“50”); S McAnarney 0-3; B Solan 0-2
(0-1f); A Brett 0-1; S Manley 0-1.
Tara:
P Hehir 0-3 (0-1f); S Hehir 0-1; A Hanley 0-1.
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