Ramor open defence with win over Stars

Senior Football Championship round 1

Ramor United 2-11

Kingscourt Stars 1-9

Champions Ramor United got their defence of the Oliver Plunkett Cup off on a positive start with a win over Kingscourt at Kingspan Breffni on Friday night – but manager John Brady will know that some improvement is needed if the Virginia men are to retain the title for the first time.

Ramor started without three of the team who started the county final replay last November, namely Sean McEvoy, Brían O’Connell, Simon Cadden, and struggled to shake off the Stars, who were without Barry Reilly and Alan Clarke but had the addition of Jordan Morris, making his championship debut.

While Ramor will be happy with the win, the big concern for them is that Brady’s son James, invariably the team’s top scorer, went off with a knee injury in the first half. If he were to be ruled out for an extended period, it would be a huge blow to the holders.

Kingscourt, as expected, provided stern opposition and they will be disappointed to get nothing from the game, having been in contention all the way before Ramor bagged a goal in the 64th minute.

From early on, there was a clear pattern – one side would score and the other would immediately reply and this trend was only broken on a couple of occasions, with Ramor benefitting.

The Dolan Park men were two points up deep in second-half injury time when they ran in that goal which handed them a flattering five-point victory – although there was no doubt they deserved their win. While sloppy in certain aspects, overall they managed the game well and showed their experience, with Liam Brady, Jack Brady, Ado Cole and Damien Barkey impressing.

After registering two early wides, Ramor took the lead when great work by Enda Maguire created a goal chance which James Brady blasted over from close range.

Kingscourt replied on five minutes; Peter Corrigan launched a high ball goalwards and Jordan Morris broke and gathered before pointing with the left.

James Brady registered again, this time from a free, after a foul on Gareth Mannion, but Kingscourt soon hit the front with a well-worked goal. After a foul 60 metres out, Barry Tully sent the free long to Padraig Faulkner, who had drifted inside and he connected cleanly with the fist to send the ball to the roof of the net with nine minutes played.

The tit-for-tat nature of proceedings continued. A good match threatened to break out at times but for the most part, this was poor enough fare, with plenty of misplaced handpasses, poor execution of skills and dodgy decision-making on the ball.

James Bradley and Morris (free) traded scores before Cole, one of the stand-out performers, gathered a pass from Bradley and converted a mark.

Morris, who looked dangerous but was swarmed by a mob-handed Ramor rearguard, gathered a ball from Sean Burke and manufactured a point from nothing in heavy traffic to make it 1-3 to 0-4 on 18 minutes but the Stars would fail to score again for the remainder of the first half.

Bradley again found Cole for a converted mark before Ramor suffered a huge blow when James Brady went off with that knee injury, sustained while soloing the ball out of contact.

After a three-minute delay, Ramor had two wides before James’s brother Jack, who had a super game, came up with a goal. He passed to Cole and continued his run; when the ball was squared, Brady was on the end of it to fist to the net.

Morris struck the upright with the final kick of the half as Ramor led 1-5 to 1-3 at the halfway point.

The Meath senior star was involved in the first significant action on the resumption, too, landing a free after a foul on Kevin Curtis. Damien Barkey started a sweeping move and won a free on the opposition 14-metre line for Sean Brady to convert as the mistakes began to rack up all over the field.

A 45-metre strike from Joe Dillon and a fisted effort for Eoin Somerville – after Bradley’s third assist – left it 1-7 to 1-5 before Morris and Bradley exchanged frees.

Neither side was able to string successive scores together at this stage. Barry Tully took a pass from Shane Gray and knocked over a fine effort but after the outstanding Liam Brady picked out Sean Brady, Somerville split the posts for a second time just before the water break.

On 53 minutes, Cian Sheckleton treaded one over from a tight angle on the right. Ramor almost had a goal in reply but it was ruled out for a throw-ball from Cole to Gareth Mannion.

With normal time almost up, sub Paddy McNamee sent over a quality point from the left corner but Morris stroked over a free from 40 metres in reply to set up a tense period of injury time with just a point between the teams.

It was Ramor, however, who came up with the goods. Jack Brady won a free on the 45 and drove it over himself from the hands and then, with time almost up, Adam O’Connell centred the ball for sub Seanie Keogan to find the net from close range.

Ramor United: Liam Brady, Adam O’Connell, Damien Barkey, Matthew Magee, Mark Magee, Jack Brady (1-1), Ben Smith, Laurence Caffrey, Gareth Mannion, Eoin Somerville (0-2), Sean Brady (0-1), Enda Maguire, James Brady (0-2, 1f), Ado Cole (0-2m), James Bradley (0-2, 1f)

Subs: Paddy McNamee (0-1) for James Brady (24 mins, inj.), Lorcan Lynch for Matthew Magee (51), Seanie Keogan (1-0) for E Somerville (60)

Kingscourt Stars: Darragh McKenna, Cathal McKeown, Shane Gray, Cian Sheckleton (0-1), Shane Duffy, Padraig Faulkner (1-0), Padraig Donagh, Peter Corrigan, Sean Burke, Barry Tully (0-1), Joe Dillon (0-1), John Oates, Kevin Curtis, Cian McArdle, Jordan Morris (0-5, 3f)

Subs: Noel McIntyre for C McArdle (ht), Killian Farrelly for K Curtis (54)

Ref: Barry McMenamin