Ardee St Mary's begin their Joe Ward Cup defence with comfortable victory

ANCHOR TOURS SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 1 GROUP 4

Ardee St Mary’s 2-15 St Brides 0-8

The county champions Ardee St Mary’s got their defence of the Joe Ward Cup off to the perfect start in Darver on Sunday evening as they easily accounted for St Brides.

An early goal in the first minute from Dean Matthews set the tone for this contest, as relentless pressure from the Pairc Mhuire men saw them hit 1-6 without reply inside the opening quarter.

St Brides were losing pretty much every kickout in this period, which their opponents used to stay camped in their half of the field. Defenders and attacker alike, all were putting in the tackles, making solo runs or turning provider as they wreaked havoc through the first half.

By half time they led by 12 and despite a much better showing from Emmet Kirk as a target man, plus a larger retention rate from their own kickouts, St Brides rarely looked like making much of a dent on the deficit as they eventually lost out by 14.

As can be the case in three team groups, every score could be the one that gets you through to the knockout phase, so St Brides supporters will be happy that their team fought until the final whistle. They will hope Cooley fare even worse when they face the reigning champions on Sunday.

Ardee came out of the traps fast. Ryan Rooney lost the ball near the goals following a lovely tackle from Paddy Reilly, before the ball spilled into the path of Dean Matthews who drilled it home soccer style off the ground after just 56 seconds.

It was the worst possible start for the Knockbridge men, who as the next 12 minutes progressed soon found themselves nine behind, largely due to them losing five consecutive kickouts. By the end of the half, that number had risen to 12 from a total of 15, showcasing Ardee’s dominance in midfield.

While the debuting Sean Callaghan and the experienced Robert Leavy played a huge role in this demolition job as Ardee’s starting midfielders, it has to noted the turnovers came from a variety of sources.

Liam Jackson, Matthews, Commins and even full back Donal McKenny are others who rose high into the air to win the ball off Brides’ restarts, as no matter where keeper Aaron Devin kicked the ball, there always seemed to be a man from Ardee there to win it clean or fight for the breaking ball.

The scores themselves came from a variety of sources. They finished the evening with eight different scorers, with the worrying trend for all those hoping to dethrone them being that a whopping 2-12 of their final total came from open play.

Commins (2), Carl Gillespie, McConnon (2) and Callaghan were the early scorers. A mix of patient build up, accurate passes into space, lovely solo running, plus an ability to seemingly score from anywhere in the half with the breeze backing them up, left their attack impossible to defend.

After 14 minutes St Brides finally got their first score courtesy of a free from Sean Marry. But it was a goal they needed, which almost came on 18 minutes. Kieran McArdle linked up with Andrew Smyth, but pressure from three defenders saw him unable to pull the trigger from close range.

They did duly recycle the ball and get a point via the boot of Emmet Kirk, but it proved to be their last score of the half, leaving them trailing by 1-11 to 0-2 at the break.

St Brides got their act together somewhat after the restart. They regained clarity around the middle, only losing two their own restarts and even forcing five turnovers from Ardee kickouts.

Emmet Kirk was the target man and when they could find him in space, he was rising high and winning the aerial battles. They plotted four scores in a row midway through the second half, via Smyth, Kirk (2) and Neil Thornton.

But these flurry of scores came after this contest was pretty much decided, only negating 1-1 which Ardee had gotten a few minutes earlier.

Their second goal saw McConnon channeling his inner soccer-player, as he dribbled the ball along the endline before blasting the ball past Devin. That created a 16-point cushion, allowing them the chance to give others some game time ahead of tougher challenges.

Ardee St Mary’s: James McGillick, Jay Crawley, Donal McKenny (0-1), Tiernan Corrigan; Kian Moran, Paraic McKenny, Carl Gillespie (0-1); Sean Callaghan (0-1), Robert Leavy; Dean Matthews (1-0), Liam Jackson, Johnathan Commins (0-5, 0-3 frees); Ryan Rooney, Daire McConnon (1-3), Darren Clarke (0-3). Subs: Conor Gillespie for Matthews (37), Ronan Carroll for Clarke (42), Eimhin Keenan for Leavy (48), Evan Malone (0-1) from Crawley (52), Tadgh McDonnell for Moran (55).

St Brides: Aaron Devin (0-1 free); Robert McCaughey, Cillian Kirk, Steven Hoey; Andrew Smyth (0-1), Patrick Reilly, Sean Brennan; Bernard Laverty, Liam Molloy; Brian Faul, Kieran McArdle, Ross Murnaghan, Neil Thornton (0-1), Emmet Kirk (0-4, 0-2 frees, 0-1 mark), Sean Marry (0-1 free). Subs: Conor Deane for Brennan (HT), Evan Wynne for Hoey (39), Nathan Kirk for Murnaghan (39), Kevin Hearty for Faul (55), James Costelloe for Laverty (55).

Referee: Jonathan Conlon (O’Connell’s).