County men return as Ross secure shield
Wednesday February 17 2010
NEW ROSS District picked up the Joe Bradley Memorial Shield with a four-point victory over their Wexford counterparts in the inter-District tournament in St. Patrick's Park, Enniscorthy, on Friday last.
New Ross started with a vast array of talent in their forward line. P.J. Banville returned from his broken leg, was understandably rusty, and didn't look ready for an inter-county return, while both Shane Roche and Ciarán Deely had solid outings. However, it was Lloyd Colfer who stole the show with a superb display from both a creativity and scoring perspective.
Wexford, still reliant on a few members of the Under-21 panel for numbers, improved significantly on their first outing. Robert Tierney's marauding style again caught the eye, and the GlynnBarntown clubman registered a pair of first-half minors.
A one-point lead after the opening quarter for New Ross (0-4 to 03) was padded in the 17th minute. Mikey Banville saw his powerful effort come down off the bar, yet Roche picked up the rebound, was dragged down, and Colfer slotted home the resulting penalty.
Wexford continued to chip away at the scoreboard and took a lead in at the break. Mark Fanning was fouled eight yards from goal and put the frustration of the referee's whistle blowing just as he lashed past Seán Cummins behind hime to tuck home the penalty into the bottom left corner (1-5 to 1-4).
Quickfire Tommy Barron and Paul Gannon points gave Wexford their largest lead of the contest, three points, just after the interval, but their opponents proceeded to go on a 16-minute run which produced 2-5 without reply to take control.
Shane Roche grabbed four of those points while Michael Roche and Shane Bradley added the majors to ease New Ross eight ahead. Derek Walsh and Pádraig O'Keeffe added late overs while Andy Moore added a classy goal to leave the final score a fairer representation of the match as a whole.
Darren Deery was the recipient of the man of the match trophy, while Larry Kehoe presented the winners' shield to Adamstown's Alan Bradley.
- DEAN GOODISON
