Curraha 3-12  Walterstown 2-12

Curraha traveled to Walterstown GFC on Bank Holiday Friday evening the 31st of May for a meeting with Walterstown in Round 8 of the J.M. Food Services League encounter. Played on a beautiful summer's evening with Walterstown pitch in superb condition the game was poised for a rip roaring encounter. 

Joseph Curran got the game underway at 8pm and Curraha got off to a dream start after only 29 seconds. Curraha won the throw up and after a brilliant pass from Diarmuid Moriarty which split the home team's defence in 2, the ball ended up with Conor Moriarty who bared down on goal, unselfishly he flicked the ball to Gavin Coyle, Coyle palmed the ball to the back of the net to give Curraha a dream start. Walterstown responded with a fine point from Neil McGinley. Walterstown brought the deficit back to a point with a fine score from Fionnan O’Connor after 5 minutes of play. Curraha responded immediately with some great build up play resulting in a point from a mark from James McEntee to give Curraha a 2 point lead. Neil McGinley got Walterstown’s 3rd point of the match in the 8th minute. Curraha were goal hungry and Diarmuid Moriarty raised a 2nd green flag for Curraha when he finished off a brilliant team move to give Curraha a 4 point lead with a quarter of an hour gone in the game. Curraha started to turn the screw and Conor Moriarty converted a free from 45 meters out. Walterstown responded with a rocket of a goal coming from Adam Quinn to bring the deficit back to 2 points. Curraha didn't let this hamper their attack and David Coyle kicked an excellent point off his right foot at a crucial time in the half. Diarmuid Moriarty followed up with an excellent point from play with 9 minutes remaining in the half. Neil McGinley brought Curraha's lead back to 3 when he sent over a point from a free. The first half was filled with goals and Curraha got their 3rd in the 22nd minute when they put together their best move of the match with Luke McCarthys kick out being fielded brilliantly by Diarmuid Moriarty who delivered a pin point pass to Conor Moriarty who riffled the ball to the bottom corner of the Walterstown net to give Curraha a commanding 7 point lead with 2 minutes remaining in the half. Curraha nearly had a fourth goal seconds later with David Coyle’s fine effort hitting the crossbar. Walterstown responded with 2 points coming from Ciarán Cox and Aron McLaughlin to give them some hope heading into the second half. 

Half time score read: Curraha 3.05  Walterstown 1.06

The second half began and Curraha introduced Ian Battersby for Daigh Fitzpatrick. Curraha's Conor Moriarty was starting to show his class and in the second half he won the ball out near the sideline, he was over 50 meters out, Moriarty turned his man and shot, his shot hung in the air and dropped over the crossbar to the delight of the traveling support. James McEntee converted a fine point from a free 2 minutes into the half after recovering from a knock he sustained when contesting a kick out. Walterstown responded with a point from Adam Quinn to leave 6 between the teams. Conor Moriarty again restored the lead to 7 when he converted an excellent point from a free with 7 minutes gone in the second half. Walterstown again responded with a point from Neil McGinley from a free. Curraha's next point came in the 9th minute of play when Gavin Coyle did brilliantly to win a ball which looked like it was going wide, Coyle looked to have been dispossessed by 2 Walterstown men only for Coyle to deliver a fine kick pass to Diarmuid Moriarty who converted his effort off his right foot. Walterstown weren't giving up though and 2 quick fire scores 1 of which came from Conor McEntee to leave 5 between the teams. Curraha were reduced to 14 men when James McEntee was shown a black card in the 11th minute of the half. Curraha even though they were under pressure they got a vital score in the 13th minute coming from the on form Conor Moriarty with another peach of a score from play. The Curraha players dug deep for 10 minutes and some good defending led to Walterstown only being able to register 1 point coming from Conor McEntee to again leave 5 between the teams with 10 minutes remaining. Walterstown brought the deficit back to 4 with a well taken point from play which left us in store for a great finish to the game. Every time Walterstown got a point Curraha seemed to have an answer and Diarmuid Moriarty kicked over a brilliant point off his left foot from a tight angle with 5 minutes remaining to give Curraha some breathing space. Curraha then introduced 2 substitutions with Michael John Lavin coming on for Jamie Fewer and Jared Roche coming on for Ian Battersby who sustained an injury. James McEntee converted a free in the 31st minute of play to leave 6 between the teams. A frantic finish followed with Neil McGinley getting Walterstown’s 2nd goal of the game with the game now 3 minutes into injury time. Walterstown did have a couple of chances late on to try and salvage something from the game but some great defending from the Curraha players meant they held on and picked up another valuable 2 points which takes them onto 12 points in the table and makes it 5 wins in a row. Overall a good performance from Curraha with lots of positives to take heading into the next game but also plenty of things to work on as well. 

Curraha can now enjoy a 2 week break to rest and recover with their next league game, a home fixture on Saturday the 15th of June in Joe McDermott Park against Moynalvey with a 6pm throw-in time. 

Curraha team and scorers: Luke McCarthy, Seamus Hogan, Matthew Webb, Oisín Fay, Jamie Fewer, Niall Murphy, Seán Ronan, Diarmuid Moriarty 1.03, Brian Joyce, Conor Joyce, James McEntee 0.02F (0.01M) Daigh Fitzpatrick, David Coyle 0.01, Conor Moriarty 1.05 (0.02F) Gavin Coyle 1.00

Subs used: Ian Battersby for Daigh Fitzpatrick, Michael John Lavin for Jamie Fewer and Jared Roche for Ian Battersby. 

Report: Ivan Keogh

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