Third defeat sees Moycullen edge closer to the trap door

Moycullen 0-17

Moycullen’s wretched Autumn form continued in Pearse Stadium last Saturday evening as they again came up short, this time against Athenry. The defeat was Moycullen’s third successive loss in the championship, leaving them winless in Group 2 of the Senior ‘B’ and now facing into an all-or-nothing relegation clash with Beagh.

To be fair to Moycullen, they did show some resolve, battling back into the contest early in the second half having been nine points down at the break but, in the end, Athenry were just too good for them. Diarmaid Burns’ side led pretty much from start to finish with Conor Burke and Ronan Hardiman starring at centre-back and at midfield respectively.

Hardiman finished up with nine points and while most of them came from frees, his extra bit of class was evident in open play as well. Burke, for his part, led by example in defence, particularly in the first half when he came out on top in his duel with Moycullen’s dangerman, Eanna Noone.

It was Hardiman who opened the day’s scoring, firing over a lovely effort over his shoulder inside 25 seconds. Noone responded for Moycullen with a long-range free before Tom Flynn and Danny Gleeson exchanged points the leave the sides level, 0-2 apiece, after three minutes.

Athenry were clearly the better side early on, however, and they had moved into a commanding lead by the 10th minute as they hit six points in six minutes. Another sweetly-taken point from Cian Burke pushed them ahead, before three frees from Hardiman, a point from Paddy Hannon and a second from Cian Burke left them 0-8 to 0-2 ahead with Moycullen struggling.

Good work from Conor Bohan in forcing a turnover did allow Danny Gleeson to narrow the gap for the trailing side, but Athenry put their foot to the gas again as they hit a further 1-4 without reply.

Mark Hannon was given acres of space to fire over in the 14th minute before Hardiman made it 0-10 to 0-3 with another free.

Only an excellent stop from Eric Fox denied Cillian Lawless the game’s opening goal in the 21st minute, but Moycullen failed to clear their lines after the save and Fox was eventually left with little option but to drag down Cathal Keane in front of goal. The foul only delayed the inevitable, however, as Cian Burke expertly dispatched the penalty into the bottom left corner.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.