Carnaross made the journey to Dunsany on a cold Sunday morning for round 2 of the A league. The two teams have become very familiar with each other in recent years having played several times in both league and championship. The previous games had all been closely contested battles with very little to separate the sides and Sunday’s game was no exception. 

Carnaross 1-8 Dunsany 1-11

A League (Division 3)

Played in Dunsany – 4/2/2018

Dunsany started the strongest and raced into an early 4 points to 1 lead. Carnaross found it difficult to get a foothold in the game as they struggled with the conditions and spurned several scoring chances, their sole point coming courtesy of a Frank O’Reilly free. Dunsany received a black card midway through the first half after an off the ball collision. The sides then exchanged points before Carnaross were struck down with two injuries in the space of a few minutes. Jack Roche came on for centre back Liam Brogan who was forced off after sustaining a shoulder injury. Liam Day was then stretchered off shortly afterwards after suffering a leg injury, Shane Casserly was brought on in his place.

The referee had stopped play after Day’s injury and Carnaross earned a penalty from the resultant throw up. John L McGee gathered possession out by the side line and headed towards goal. After a quick one-two, McGee was bearing down on goal before being brought down by the Dunsany keeper. The referee awarded a penalty to Carnaross which Frank O’Reilly stepped up to take. O’Reilly made no mistake and calmly converted sending the keeper the wrong way. Dunsany then went on to score two more points before the break with O’Reilly adding another to his tally leaving Dunsany with a n 0-08 to 1-03 lead at half time.

Dunsany came out all guns blazing at the beginning of the second half and scored a point and goal in succession. The goal came from an overlap which led to a one on one with keeper Shane McNiffe. Carnaross kept their composure after this setback and hit a purple patch, outscoring Dunsany by 5 points to 1. Two points from O’Reilly and one each from Casserly, Killian Porter and Tomás Plunkett, after a marauding run from the full back, ensured that the game the game was still very much in the balance with the gap reduced to two points.

The game became very scrappy in the closing minutes with several stoppages in play which disrupted the flow of the game. Dunsany added on another point to take the lead out to three points which is how it finished with a victory for Dunsany on a final score of: Dunsany 1-11 Carnaross 1-08.

Carnaross: Shane McNiffe; Peter Carpenter, Tomás Plunkett (0-1), Peter Farrelly, Sam Reynolds, Liam Brogan, Stephen Flattery, Michael Brogan, Charles Brogan, Killian Porter (0-1), John L McGee, Niall McDonnell, Liam Day, Frank O’Reilly (1-5, 0-2f, 1-0p), Patrick McDermott Subs: Jack Roche for Liam Brogan, Shane Casserly (0-1) for Liam Day, Pierce Fleming for Michael Brogan, Cian Yore for Stephen Flattery,