Lavey chisel out hard-earned win

Senior Football Championship

Lavey 3-8

Shercock 1-12

Kevin Óg Carney at Kingspan Breffni

Lavey extended their interest in this year’s SFC with a gritty, resilient and composed performance at Kingspan Breffni.

Both teams lived up to their traditions of pulling out big championship performances and last Sunday’s affair gilded their reputations in that respect.

Shercock fought the good fight and threw all, bar the kitchen, sink at their opponents after Chris Conroy’s 58th minute spot-kick suggested that it was a done-deal for the Lavey men.

The town team refused to give up the fight though and they pummelled Lavey’s defence in the four minutes of added-on time but failed to breach enemy lines.

If ever there was a slow-burner football affair, this was one and apart from Shercock’s excellent engineering of their opening goal – palmed home by Niall Clerkin in the 10th minute – the opening quarter was most definitely not redolent of past Lavey or Shercock championship displays.

Fortunately, Gerard Smith’s 17th minute goal – after good work by Emmett Brady - was the cue for real championship football to kick in and from there to the death, the fare served up was a feast for the eyes.

While the excitement quotient was top notch, so too were some of the scores on view with the excellence of Killian Clarke’s free-taking and the eagle-eyed shooting of Chris Conroy and Shane Tierney a joy to behold.

Lavey led by 1-2 to 1-0 come the first sos uisce and it appeared as if scores would continue to be at a premium with so much lateral play, indecisiveness in the middle third and aimless kicking pooping the party for purists among the attendees.

Thankfully, the final two thirds of the game were as exciting and entertaining as the opening quarter was boring and stale and the noise levels from the stand rose accordingly to complement the feisty nature of the contest.

Shercock started the second half with real intent and within two minutes they had drawn level (1-5 apiece) with excellent points from the usual suspects of Niall Clerkin and Killian Clarke (mark). Having been tied together on just one occasion (1-2 apiece) in the first half, stalemate would occur three times in the second half before the dye was finally cast.

Shercock belied their underdogs’ tag by bringing the game to their opponents with gusto in the second half. Aided by the wind in the second half and, more importantly, bolstered by the red carding of Lavey’s Darragh Conaty in the 37th minute, the team without a 2021 SFC point to their name looked favourites to edge home.

Lavey were solid at the back but they got a let-off in the 44th minute when Niall Clerkin was adjudged to have over-carried the ball just as he was about to pull the trigger. Shercock had no such let-off just over one minute later when Chris Conroy made a powerful run through the heart of the Shercock defence before laying the ball off to the outstanding Darren Jordan who fired home to give his side a 2-7 to 1-7 lead.

Predictably, the drama then quickly switched to the other end of the field and Conor Martin was forced to deflect Ryan Clerkin’s daisycutter (46) out for a ’45 – subsequently converted by Killian Clarke.

With the return (46) to the fold of the black carded Shane Clarke, Shercock’s hopes of victory were upped by a Niall Clerkin mark but it took a great block moments later by Colin Clerkin to prevent Shane Tierney’s shot finding the target.

The sides exchanged points in the run in before Shercock engineered two half-goal chances at the death with Lee Clarke and Micheál Reilly coming close without finding the net.

Lavey: Conor Martin; Peter Smith, David Conroy, Philip Smith; Darragh Tierney, Darren Jordan (1-2), Darragh Conaty; Gerard Smith (1-2, 1f), Paul Gilchreest; Oisín Tynan, Chris Conroy (1-1, pen), Diarmuid Conaty; Emmett Brady, Shane Tierney (0-3, 1f), Raymond King.

Subs; Raymond King for O Tynan; Aodhaghan Sheridan for D Conaty; Declan Conroy for E Brady.

Shercock: Stephen Donnery; Damien McIntyre, Dwayne Eakins, Killian Clarke (0-7, 3f, ‘45); Colin Clerkin, Paddy McMahon, Micheál Reilly; Brian Sankey, Philip Clerkin (0-1); Sean Clarke, Niall Clerkin (1-3, 2f), Shane Clarke; Daniel Clarke, Eoin Morrisey (0-1), Ryan Clerkin.

Subs; Lee Clarke for E Morrissey; Andrew Culleton for S Clarke.