A sole Longford win in Leinster as St Brigid’s Killashee beat Barrowhouse

St Brigid’s Killashee defeated Barrowhouse of Laois by nine points at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday to progress to the quarter-final of the Leinster Club Junior Football Championship with Noel Farrell’s charges at home again in the next round. 

St Brigid’s Killashee . . . 2-15    Barrowhouse (Laois) . . . 2-6 

The opposition on Saturday November 15th will be Shillelagh/Coolboy (Wicklow) who won away against Oliver Plunketts, Drogheda 4-8 to 1-15 to cross the first hurdle. 

The impressive Dylan Farrell was the scorer in chief with the exceptional total of 2-10 for St Brigid’s against Barrowhouse while Michael Farrell and Niall McCormack fired over two points each, with Johnny Casey adding the other point.

The Longford side scored the opening two points courtesy of Dylan Farrell and Johnny Casey, the latter coming after a superb pass from Jack Magan.

Ronan Kavanagh missed a good goal chance to extend the lead to five points in the fourth minute and within sixty seconds, Barrowhouse rattled the St Brigid’s net when their full forward James Baldwin fired past Barry Geraghty in the Killashee goals, to put the Laois men ahead by a point.

Dylan Farrell responded with a fantastic two-point score and another point in the seventh minute while Michael Farrell slotted over a free to give Killashee a three-point advantage.

Brian Malone and Oran Kelleher replied for Barrowhouse to reduce the arrears to just a point with twelve minutes gone on the clock.

Paddy Mollaghan had a great opportunity to raise a green flag when he was one-on-one with Barrowhouse keeper Darragh Phelan but his shot was brilliantly saved by Phelan.

St Brigid’s then went on a scoring spree of 1-4 without reply in the remainder of the first half. Dylan Farrell scored two successive points, and Niall McCormack and Farrell again, put the home side ahead by five points. 

Dylan Farrell had two one-on-one situations with the Barrowhouse stopper Phelan in the closing stages of the first  half. Phelan won the first duel with a brilliant save from Farrell’s low shot in the 27th minute but Farrell came out on top with the second opportunity just before the half-time whistle, when he fired the ball past Phelan to the net to give the Killashee club an eight-point interval lead, 1-10 to 1-2.

Niall McCormack for the home side and Kodi Dunn for the visitors swapped points before a Dylan Farrell free gave St Brigid’s a nine-point cushion.

Lee Dunne fired over a brilliant two-pointer for Barrowhouse only for Dylan Farrell to register another score for Killashee. 

The victory was sealed in the 49th minute when a long ball in from Jack Magan was caught by Evan Farrell and although he dropped the ball, the referee awarded what seemed like a harsh penalty for a pick-up of the ground by a Barrowhouse player. Up stepped Dylan Farrell to slot home the penalty to give Killashee an unassailable eleven-point lead.

Lee Day responded with a point for the visitors and he then had a shot brilliantly saved by Killashee keeper Barry Geraghty.

Dylan Farrell and Michael Farrell added the last two points of the match. In between those two points, a stunning move from the St Brigid’s almost produced their third goal. Colin Cousins and Dylan Farrell brilliantly combined to set-up Evan Farrell but his shot produced a magnificent save from Phelan.

Barrowhouse got a consolation goal deep into stoppage time when the Baldwin twins combined with a knockdown by James collected by Andrew and he fired the ball to the net.

ST BRIGID’S KILLASHEE: Barry Geraghty; Shane Cosgrove, Keelan Cox, Briain Farrell; Keelan James Willis, Ronan Kavanagh, Paddy Clancy; Michael Farrell (0-2, 1f), Jack Magan; Niall McCormack (0-2), Dylan Farrell (2-10, 1 penalty, 1 two-pointer, 4 frees), Colin Cousins; Paddy Mollaghan, Johnny Casey (0-1), Evan Farrell.

Subs:- James Campbell for J Willis, Darren Cosgrove for J Magan (both 56 mins), Michael Reilly for P Mollaghan and Cian Clancy for E Farrell (both 60 minutes), Simon Mulvey (stoppage time).  

BARROWHOUSE (Laois): Darragh Phelan, Denis Brophy, Alex Robinson, Rory Grufferty, Kodi Dunne (0-1), Martin Murphy, TJ Burke, Alex Kenny, Oran Kelleher (0-1), Cillian Langton, Brian Malone (0-1), James Baldwin (1-0), Lee Day (0-3, 1 two-pointer), Scott Flynn, Andrew Baldwin (1-0).

Subs:- Tom Page for Flynn (41 mins), James Brennan for Grufferty (52 mins), Ben Howe for Robinson, Tom McDonald for Kenny (both 57 mins).

Referee: Enda Kenny (Westmeath).