For Longwood’s Intermediate Footballers, it was definitely a case of saving the best wine for last. The team delivered their most accomplished performance of the season, ultimately running out comfortable winners against a doughty Moylagh team.
With both sides having lost their opening two championship games, the stakes were incredibly high; win and intermediate status was preserved, lose and a relegation dogfight awaited.
Longwood were first to register a score with Anthony Healy measuring a 45 to perfection after little more than a minute. Moylagh responded with an excellent point from play before Longwood’s Ryan Moore made his presence felt, a narrow wide from play was followed by a pointed free from an acute angle. His fellow corner forward, Tomas Coloe kicked a beautiful point to extend Longwood’s lead to two points. Despite their advantage on the scoreboard, Longwood were not playing with much fluency in the early stages. Perhaps this was understandable, given what was at stake.
An excellent save from Billy Hogan saw defence turned quickly into attack; and after a series of controlled passes, the ball eventually reached Aaron Ennis who showed his poise and vision, threading a precise pass to Anthony Healy, who had moved to the full forward position. As Healy advanced to gain possession of the ball he was clearly fouled, and the referee awarded a penalty. Ryan Moore stepped up, as he had done in the previous round, and dispatched the ball to the back of the net, as he had done in the previous round. While Moylagh responded with a point from play, Longwood took a three-point lead to the first half water break.
The next ten minutes saw Moylagh dominate and when they raised their fourth consecutive white flag to take the lead, Longwood’s supporters were understandably feeling a little uneasy. The team had gone eleven minutes without scoring and were struggling. In such difficult times, leadership is called for and thankfully Longwood have leaders in abundance. Sean Coloe, who had been relatively quiet in the opening quarter, roared into the game, producing some trademark high catches and running at the opposing defence at every opportunity. A run of three successive points from play from Coloe, Ryan Moore and Mickey Burke saw Longwood retake the lead and it appeared that the Moylagh rebellion had been quelled.
Deep into first half injury time, the ever-industrious Ross Kerrigan received a black card having been adjudged to have dragged his opponent to the ground. In fairness to the referee, it looked the correct call. Moylagh pointed the ensuing free to reduce the deficit to the minimum at the interval. More worryingly for Longwood, they would have to play the opening ten minutes of the second half at a numerical disadvantage. That Kerrigan had been one of their standout performers in the opening half, only compounded matters.
Half-time: Longwood 1-6 Moylagh 0-8
The opening minute of the second half was a complete whirlwind. Longwood won possession from the throw-in and Sean Coloe burst through the Moylagh rear guard. As he approached the 20-metre line, he noticed Niall Mulvey had made a supporting run off his right shoulder and a deft handpass put his colleague in on goal. As Mulvey pulled the trigger, a goal seemed inevitable but unbelievably the ball ricocheted back off the crossbar. A let-off for Moylagh and they were only too willing to take advantage. Within 30 seconds they had worked the ball downfield and scored a goal of their own.
As sucker punches go, this was a classic. Instead of being four points ahead, Longwood found themselves two points behind. A six point swing and still a man down for the following nine minutes. A lesser team may have floundered but the men in white stood tall. They scored three of the next four points, two from Moore, including one with his lesser-known right foot and an excellent point from the hard-working Aaron Ennis.
As Ross Kerrigan re-joined the fray, the scores were level. Kerrigan was to have a major influence on the remainder of the game. Within a minute of his re-introduction, he popped a beautiful handpass to the onrushing Fearghail O’Hare whose speed took him clear of his opponent before dispatching a low shot to the bottom corner of the net. A clinical finish that any forward would have been proud of!
And still Moylagh refused to yield. A point from play was followed by another attack which saw Billy Hogan turn a stinging shot around the posts. This excellent save was to prove to be a turning point as the resulting 45 was missed. It seemed to take the wind out of Moylagh’s sails.
Longwood could sense the opportunity and they went for it. Three unanswered points from Ryan Moore (2) and Mickey Burke increased the advantage to five points. It should have been more as a delicious foot pass from Harry Hogan put Anthony Healy through on goal, but his shot was a little too close to the goalkeeper who pulled off a good save.
As the game entered the closing stages, Longwood were now very much on top. A superb long-range point from Sean Coloe gave the south Meath supporters the assurance that this was going to be their day. Two further points from Mickey Burke and Ryan Moore were the icing on the cake.
Apart from an uncertain 10 minutes in the middle of the opening half, this was an excellent performance from Longwood. No team is going to dominate for the entire game; the important thing is to make the most of your periods of dominance and the boys did exactly that. They were able to string a run of scores together on multiple occasions meaning that Moylagh were playing catch up for much of the game. Credit to Moylagh, they battled bravely until the final whistle but Longwood’s extra sprinkling of quality shone through in the end.
There were many excellent performances; Billy Hogan goes from strength to strength and looks increasingly commanding in goals. Ross Kerrigan’s boundless energy married to his composure on the ball, saw him have a major impact on the game. The midfield duo of Sean Coloe and Niall Mulvey worked themselves to a standstill – what more could you ask for? Up front, Ryan Moore wreaked havoc as always but he would be the first to recognise the work of his fellow forwards to create the opportunities that he has a happy knack of finishing. Long may it continue! That said, Longwood had an excellent spread of scorers with no fewer than seven players registering a score over the hour. And when things seemed to be going awry, the calm heads of Mickey Burke, Joey Stenson and Vinny Byrne were on hand to steady the ship.
Well done to the entire panel and the management team. They have secured Intermediate Football for Longwood for 2022. This is no small feat given the savagely competitive nature of the Intermediate Championship, particularly with the increased number of teams having come down from the senior ranks in recent years.
Longwood: Billy Hogan, Bob Maguire, Damien Healy, Joey Stenson, Fearghail O’Hare (1-0), Vinny Byrne, Ross Kerrigan, Niall Mulvey, Sean Coloe (0-2), Harry Hogan, Anthony Healy (0-1), Aaron Ennis (0-1), Ryan Moore (1-7), Mickey Burke (0-3), Tomas Coloe (0-1). Subs: Eoin Lynch, Tadhg Connolly, Adam O’Brien, Cathal Campbell, Cian O’Hare, David McQuaid, Jim Mahon
A special note of appreciation for David Flynn who informed the panel of his decision to step down from his role as team manager after the game. David has been an excellent, and extremely successful, Bainisteoir over the past number of years. He presided over our historic Intermediate Championship success in 2018; those magical victories over Trim, Ballinabrackey and Ballinlough will live long in our memories. He led us to the promised land of Senior Championship, thereby giving our supporters the opportunity to witness Longwood play senior championship in both hurling and football in 2019. We will never forget those days and we thank David for his enormous contribution. I’m sure the players, selectors, club officers and supporters would like to extend their appreciation to David. He will forever be inexorably linked to some of Longwood GAA’s most memorable days. To David we can only say Go Raibh Míle Maith Agat!
