Eanna Desmond and Brian Coakley fire in-form Carriagline to victory over St Finbarr's
Carrigaline's Eanna Desmond blasts home the opening goal past St Finbarr's Ciaran Steele and Billy Hennessy during the McCarthy Insurance SFL Division 1 game at Carrigaline. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
ANOTHER top-class display from Carrigaline ensured they maintained their recent winning run in the McCarthy Insurance Division 1 Football League following a comfortable win over St Finbarr’s at Carrigaline on Saturday.
Make no mistake, this was no fluke as Carrigaline are playing a beautiful brand of football so far this year.
Plenty of heroes for the winners but two goals from their ace corner forward Eanna Desmond coupled with seven Brian Coakley points proved crucial in this highly entertaining clash.
Granted the Barrs were missing a number of key players but one would have to credit Carrigaline in the manner they restricted them over the hour.
The opening exchanges for both sides were cagey as both sides found scoring a near impossibility before Kevin O’Reilly split the posts in the 10th minute.
A minute later the Barrs were back on parity courtesy of a Denis O’Brien white flag that was followed by another from stalwart Michael Shields. The same player was unlucky not to score a goal on the next possession but his thundering shot came back off the crossbar to safety.
Carrigaline they were well organised and pressed the Barrs at every given opportunity although the game was finely poised up to the 28th minute.
Whether it was pressure or basic carelessness, the Barrs repeatedly turned the ball over in the first half and they were duly punished with two minutes remaining to the interval. From having the ball 20 metres from their opponents' posts, the Barrs lost possession and a quick move in the opposite direction saw Eanna Desmond finish with ease for the opening green flag.
Brian Coakley kicked a brace of points in the closing minutes as Carrigaline deservedly went in at the break commanding a six-point lead: 1-8 to 0-5.
It was Coakley who had gotten Carrigaline up and running just two minutes into the restart with a classy point.
Carrigaline seldom looked in danger of losing and they put the game to bed in the 41st minute when Desmond got on the end of another smooth move that increased their lead to nine points.
Eoin McGreevy who was one of the Barrs leading players gave them a ray of hope three minutes later when drilling a low shot to the corner of the net. That’s as good as it got for the Barrs as they can have few complaints with their first league defeat of the season as the Carrigaline bandwagon rolls on.
E Desmond 2-1, B Coakley 0-7 (0-2 f), K O’Reilly 0-2, C O’Herlihy, L Boyle, T Vaughan (0-1 each).
E McGreevy 1-3, M Shields 0-3 (0-1 f), D O’Brien 0-2.
S Mellett; C Barry, I Sheerlan, D King; K Kavanagh, C O’Herlihy, J McCarthy; D Griffin, P Mellett; A Coughlan, B Coakley, E Ryle; N Coakley, K O’Reilly E Desmond.
L Boyle for D King (44), T Cronin for D Griffin (50), T Vaughan for K O’Reilly (51). C Kearney for A Coughlan (54).
D Newman; B Hennessy, F Crowley, C Steele; C Lyons, S Ryan, B O’Connell; J Burns, A Lyne; D O’Brien, E McGreevy, C Barrett; J Wigginton-Barrett, M Shields, J Murphy.
C McCarthy for C Steele (h-t), J Fitzsimons for J Murphy (38), T O’Keeffe for B O’Connell (58).
Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan).
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