Solid Athy dump 2016 champions Sarsfields out in 10-point quarter-final drubbing

Athy 2-11

Sarsfields 0-7

Joe Mallon SFC quarter-final

Athy eased their way into the last four of the Senior Championship thanks to a comprehensive win over Sarsfields who exit the championship at the quarter-final stage for the second year running.

It was a well rounded performance from an Athy side who looked very assured throughout at the back, conceding just two points from play of the 60-plus minutes. In truth, it wasn’t the most entertaining game overall, but Athy won’t care one jot as they seek to make it back to a county final for the first time since 2015.

It was always going to be a tough ask for a Sarsfields side missing Alan Smith and Dan Nea through injury, and their absence in attack was telling in the first half as they managed just one point from play. They failed to really create anything from the midfield upwards, and when they did it often resulted in some poor execution on front of goal.

Athy were hardly setting the world alight at the other end for the majority of the first half, but they at least began to motor in the final 10 minutes before the break as they took control of the game.

It took four minutes for the first score to arrive as Liam McGovern pointed a free, and two minutes later Kevin Feely nudged over the first point from play. Sarsfields’ only score from open play in the first half arrived in the eighth minute courtesy of Shea Ryan as he clipped over from close range, but they offered little in attack after that.

McGovern and Gary White traded efforts from frees as the scoreboard read 0-3 to 0-2 after a fairly dour first 23 minutes. A bit of life was injected into proceedings when David Hyland took the initiative by galloping forward and slicing over a superb point from 45 metres out, while James Eaton registered his first of the day with a good score from the left wing shortly after.

Sarsfields lost Ben McCormack to a black card in the 19th minute, but his replacement Ray Cahill immediately started to influence the game as he knocked over a couple of frees in a row to reduce the Athy lead to just one point as half-time approached. Athy grabbed a major breakthrough on the half hour mark when they went route one to bag the only goal of the first half. Kevin Feely, operating at full-forward for the opening 30 minutes, caused consternation in the Sarsfields square when Pascal Connell kicked a high ball in, and the O’Neills broke to Barry Kelly who rolled the ball to the back of the net.

Conn Whelan managed to pull a point back for Sarsfields from a free, but at half-time it as Kelly’s goal that separated the sides as the men in red led by 1-5 to 0-5.

If the first half was a limp affair the second half was hardly any better as both defences continued to dominate. The Athy defence was particularly superb as they lumped tightly together when Sarsfields attacked, and they were doing just about enough at the other end to steer the ship towards victory.

Athy almost got off to the perfect start upon the resumption as the pacey John Moran slipped in behind the Sarsfields defence, but his low shot was well blocked by Sean Dempsey. James Eaton delivered the first score of the second half as he curled over an excellent free from the left wing, and his accuracy became increasingly important as Athy built on their advantage.

Niall Kelly’s solitary score of the evening came on 39 minutes as he engineered a bit of space to the right of the goal before splitting the posts from a tight angle, and a further couple of pointed frees from Eaton sent Emmanuel Kennedy’s men seven points clear with just 10 minutes left to play.

The Sash finally broke their second half duck in the 51st minute when Gary White rifled over an excellent score from distance, and a point from Caoimghin McDonnell gave them something to fight towards in the final minutes as the gap stood at just five points.

No further challenge ever materialised as late points from McGovern and Kelly pushed them clear, before the former bagged a late goal in the last play of the game.

Scorers for Athy: L McGovern 1-3(3f), J Eaton 0-4(3f), B Kelly 1-0, N Kelly 0-2, D Hyland and K Feely 0-1 each.

Scorers for Sarsfields: R Cahill(2f) and G White(1f) 0-2 each, C Whelan, C McDonnell and S Ryan 0-1 each.

Athy

Stephen Davies; Tomas Foley, David Hyland, Killian Mulhall; Sean Ronan, David Hyland, John Moran; Pascal Connell, Paddy Dunne; Liam McGovern, Mark Hyland, James Eaton; Barry Kelly, Kevin Feely, Niall Kelly.

Subs used: Tony Gibbons for Bell 56mins, David Holligan for Foley 58mins.

Sarsfields

Sean Dempsey; Conor Hartley, Shane Hurley, Cian Byrne; Shea Ryan, Sean Campbell, Daragh Ryan; Caoimghin McDonnell, David Marnell; Conn Whelan, Con Kavanagh, Gary White; Cian Costigan, Ben McCormack, Ronan Fitzgibbon.

Subs used: Ray Cahill for McCormack BC 19mins, Cian Scanlon for S Ryan 38mins, Tom Aspell for Whelan 48mins, Ciaran McInerney Aspell for D Ryan 52mins.