Last year’s Regional winners Boyne Valley picked up their first win of the 2024 Bradys Skoda Regional Football Championship with a two point win over Tara in an entertaining round two encounter played at Bective on Saturday afternoon 2nd November. 

Boyne Valley 3-15 Tara 2-16

A ding dong end to end entertaining high scoring game which yielded thirty six scores, eighteen apiece, saw Joe Sheridan’s Boyne Valley get the better of Conor Scully’s Tara side in this Group B round two encounter. 

Free flowing football was the order of the day at Bective, while the new FRC trial rules were in play, aside from keeping the three men inside, they had little bearing on the game bar one or two contentious calls with both players, officials, management alike still getting the hang of them, a free flowing entertaining game was on show for the small crowd in in attendance at Bective.  

Early on it was Tara who showed the way, Kilbride’s David O’Leary opening the scoring, Boyne Valley responded with their opening point from midfielder Mark O’Brien. Two Tara points from Mark Dempsey and Cian Harford left it 0-3 to 0-1 to Tara with six minutes gone.

A huge score from Slane’s Matthew Tully out on the left wing, followed by a Marty Mulhall effort which was helped over via the crossbar left it level for a second time, three points apiece with ten minutes played. 

A Paul Kelly point for Tara was countered by a Marty Mulhall point, Mulhall’s spot kick blasted over the crossbar to level it up again. Then Boyne Valley took the lead for the first time, one they weren’t to relinquish, when Bective’s Con Smith fired over the first of his five points for the afternoon, making it 0-5 to 0-4 to Joe Sheridan’s side after thirteen minutes.

Tara’s Mark Dempsey drew the sides level for a fourth time, before the game’s first goal arrived when Cormac Rowe palmed home to Craig Manning’s net, making it 1-5 to 0-5 at the midpoint of the opening half. 

The next two scores went the way of Boyne Valley’s two Adam’s, firstly it was Adam Murphy who curled over from the right, followed by Adam Quin getting the first of his three points to leave it double scores 1-7 to 0-5 after twenty minutes.

David O’Leary sent over Taa’s sixth of the afternoon when curling over off the ground from close range, before a goal from substitute James Kelly narrowed the deficit to the minimum, 1-7 to 1-6, with twenty two minutes played.  

Three Boyne Valley scores within the next two minutes extended their advantage out to eight points with five minutes of the half remaining. Matthew Tully struck for two goals either side of a Marty Mulhall point to leave it 3-8 to 1-6 after twenty five minutes.

A breaking ball was pounced on in the Boyne Valley area by Cian Harford to punch home to the Boyne Valley net, followed by a point for captain Darren Brennan, who coincidentally captained Boyne Valley to last year’s championship win, brought the margin back to four points, 3-8 to 2-7.

A pair of Boyne Valley points from Bective men Con Smith and Marty Mulhall who were lining out on their home pitch left Boyne Valley with a six point half time advantage 3-10 to 2-7.

Both sides, who were carrying the bare skeleton panels lost players just before half time for different reasons, Tara losing influential midfielder Padraic Harnan to injury, while Boyne Valley were reduced to fourteen men when their midfielder Mark O’Brien saw the line for a second yellow card infraction.

Two minutes after the restart Tara’s David O’Leary pointed his third of the game, soon followed by a Con Smith free.

Paul Kelly, Fearghal Kiernan with the assistance of Myles Aver’s fist and a close range free from David O’Leary after Kelly had been fouled when bearing down on goal, with a Boyne Valley point from Walterstown’s Adam Quinn in response left it 3-12 to 2-10 ten minutes into the second half.

The extra man advantage was now beginning to help Tara make inroads into Boyne Valley’s lead with the two Conor’s, Quinn and Duffy splitting the uprights leaving two between the sides, 3-12 to 2-13, with 49 minutes played. 

As he had been doing all afternoon the ever reliant Con Smith hit another point from distance off the ground to briefly break the Tara momentum.

However, two more Tara points, the first from Mark Dempsey as he used the advantage of the solo & go rule to race forward and curl over and the second from David O’Leary afternoon he took a short ’45 to receive the return pass and split the uprights from distance to leave the minimum between the sides, 3-13 to 2-15, with a minute of normal time remaining.

The game looked to be heading for a draw on the stroke of sixty minute mark when Moynalvey’s Craig Gilsenan’s effort was helped over by the finger tips of Myles Avers in the Boyne Valley goal, but for Boyne Valley to strike for two late pointed frees in additional time courtesy of Con Smith and Adam Quinn, leaving the full time score reading 3-15 to 2-16  to Boyne Valley when referee Stephen Cregan blew the full time whistle.

Round three sees Tara take on Lough Crew, while Boyne Valley face off against An Tuascairt, both games next Saturday evening.

Teams & Scorers:
Tara: Craig Manning, Micheál McIver, Cathal McCabe, Keelan Taylor, Ciaran Harnan, Darren Brennan (0-1), Conor Duffy (0-1), Padraic Harnan, Fearghal Kiernan (0-1), Cian Harford (1-1), Mark Dempsey (0-3), Craig Gilsenan (0-1), James Gavin, Paul Kelly (0-2, 1f), David O’Leary (0-5, 1f).
Subs used: James Kelly (1-0), Conor Quinn (0-1), Eoghan Kiernan.

Boyne Valley: Myles Avers, Neil Dowdall, Ciaran Cox, Jack Doyle, Conor Lenehan, Brendan McGuinness, Conor Farrelly, Tristan O’Neill, Mark O’Brien (0-1), Graham Garland, Marty Mulhall (0-4, 1f), Adam Quinn (0-3, 1f), Matthew Tully (2-1), Cormac Rowe (1-0), Con Smith (0-5, 4f).
Subs used: Adam Murphy (0-1), Mark Dowdall. 

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