Cuchulainns comfortably ease past Knockbride

IFC Round 2

Cuchulainns 1-20

Knockbride 0-12

Paul Fitzpatrick at O’Raghallaigh Park

Cuchulainns easily swept aside the challenge of Knockbride at Kingscourt last night to make it two wins from two in the Intermediate Championship. While Niall Lynch’s men had beaten Lavey first time out, this was a better all-round performance – after a slowish start, their work-rate and class was impressive as they moved through the gears and ran out impressive winners.

Scores were hard to come by early on; Knockbride led 0-3 to 0-2 after 15 minutes and the teams were still deadlocked at 0-3 apiece after 20 but a flicked goal from Adam O’Reilly put some daylight between them and the would-be winners never looked back.

A Lorcan Reilly free opened Knockbride’s account before Cuchulainns levelled with a point from Cian Doughty, who turned in a great shift.

Cuchulainns then pinched three Knockbride kick-outs in succession and eventually made it count when Adrian Taite, who worked tirelessly in the middle third, broke it and Ryan Tobin finished the move.

A clever pass from Mattie Traynor teed Micheál Smith up for Knockbride’s second and a superb free from the left corner from Reilly nudged last year’s junior champions in front – but that was as good as it got as Cuchulainns turned the screw.

Niall Magee tied the game on 20 minutes, Adam O’Reilly cut on to his right to send Cuchulainns into the lead and then, after a strong run from Philip Smyth, Niall Carolan, possibly aiming for the top corner, blasted over to make it 0-5 to 0-3.

Knockbride needed a response but instead it was Cuchulainns who pushed on. Tobin, Conor O’Reilly and Glenn McCann combined and Adam O’Reily rose highest to flick home the goal five minutes before the break to make it a five-point game.

Paddy Rogers and Evan Doughty traded frees but the Knocks were struggling to create clear-cut scoring chances against a tigerish and disciplined Cuchulainns outfit who out-worked them on the evening.

Reilly fired over a 35-metre free but Evan Doughty took a pass from his brother Cian at the other end, dropped the shoulder and fired over with the final kick of the half to make it 1-7 to 0-5 at the interval.

With Carolan bombing up the field, Cuchulainns attacked in waves. From one such Carolan-led move, Adam O’Reilly floated over a nice score on the resumption and Carolan himself turned finisher moments later to make it 1-9 to 0-5.

Suddenly, this game had gone away from Ollie Fay’s men, who were also well beaten first time out against Cornafean. Reilly kicked a nice point, again on Traynor’s prompting, but a couple of missed frees from Knockbride saw the fight drain out of them.

Niall Carolan fired over the only two-pointer of the contest to make it 1-11 to 0-6; Rogers replied with two frees but the game was over as a contest by this stage.

Mark Gilsenan, with a neat score off the left, and the in-form Adam O’Reilly – after great work from Oisin Carolan and Taite – both registered to restore the eight-point gap.

Cian Doughty and Tobin both raised their second white flags as the scoreboard kept whirring on the run-in, with the intensity dropping at both ends.

Lorcan Reilly kept fighting the good fight for Knockbride, landing their final four points (three from play) but Adam O’Reilly, Oisin Donoghue, Sean Kenny and Philip Smyth all added scores for Cuchulainns, with an Evan Doughty free rounding off a good evening’s work for the Cross-Mullagh side.

Knockbride: Larry Maguire, DJ Cassidy, Mark Magee, Daniel McGuinness, Fergal Smith, Philip Nulty, Kyle McCabe, Ben Mulvey, Patrick Rogers (0-3f), Matthew Traynor, Lorcan Reilly (0-8, 4f), Liam Fay, Micheál Smith (0-1), Niall McCabe, Roy Donohoe

Subs: Luke Reilly for N McCabe (37), Cormac O'Reilly for R Donohoe (42), Ciaran Smith for P Rogers (46)

Cuchulainns: Ryan Lennon, Luke Doyle, Niall Carolan (0-4, 2pt), Cian Doughty (0-2), Oisin Carolan, Philip Smyth (0-1), Ryan Tobin (0-2), Cian Donoghue, Adrian Taite, Adam O’Reilly (1-4), Evan Doughty (0-3, 2f), Niall Magee (0-1), Glenn McCann, Mark Gilsenan (0-1), Conor O’Reilly

Subs: Oisin Donoghue (0-1) for C O'Reily (36), Sean Kenny (0-1) for G McCann (48), Cillian McCabe for A Taite (49), Micheál Kenny for O Carolan (51), Caolach Monaghan for M Gilsenan (53), Adam McKenna for R Tobin (temp)

Ref: Gabriel Patterson