A wonderful point from a Brendan Swords free after 57 minutes of this cracking SFL Division 2 contest in Roundwood last Friday night earned An Tochar a share of the spoils against Ballymanus.
A reasonable crowd populated the stand on a cold but dry night, and they were rewarded for their attendance with a thoroughly entertaining game despite both sides missing key players.
Two excellent second-half goals were major events in what was a low-scoring encounter and the plentiful supply of missed chances and shots dropped short suggests that when the evenings lengthen, and the ground hardens up that things will improve drastically in that regard.
The opening 30 minutes was a half of two halves in many ways. An Tochar looked very sharp early on and took a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after 17 minutes with William Halligan, Liam Gaffney and Brendan Swords (free) getting the Roundwood men off to a flyer with the impressive Liam Byrne recording the only point for the Billies after 12 minutes after a powerful run up the field.
Conor Davis was operating at midfield but was very much concerned with minding his defence as well as distributing tasty ball into the inside pair of Liam Gaffney and Stefan Collier with corner-forward William Halligan dropping further out the field.
Placed ball striking wasn't finding the target for the visitors early on but a change in freetaker corrected that trend with Pádraig Byrne splitting the posts on 20 to make it a one-point game.
Mark Keenan's kickouts were of the impressive variety for the most part for the home side and he dropped a bomb out to Conor Davis who picked out Eamonn Wolohan and the half back did the rest for a wonderful point.
From here on in the visitors took control and rattled over three unanswered points, two from half back Colm Coogan and the second from his defensive colleague Liam Byrne to leave Ballymanus leading by 0-5 to 0-4 at the break despite their attack not enjoying the most incisive of evenings.
Much of the credit for that ineffectiveness of the Ballymanus attack was the An Tochar defence with Sam Ireland and, briefly, Eoin Murphy, almost totally nullifying the threat of Roan Lynch.
A huge moment arrived early in the second half when Anthony Nolan awarded An Tochar a penalty and dispatched Aidan Byrne on a black card after a foul on Cian McHugh. Up stepped Conor Davis to face Brendan Doyle and the An Tochar midfielder drove the ball over the crossbar to make it 0-5 apiece.
An Tochar stepped up their game for the next 11 minutes, opening up a two-point gap through points from Gerard Byrne, who was now operating at cenrte half forward, and a free from Cian McHugh.
That lead was extinguished after 14 by a moment of magic from Pádraig Byrne who sold a ridiculous dummy to an An Tochar defender before stepping back inside and blasting home past Mark Keenan to push Ballymanus ahead.
Now it was Billies' turn to dominate. Two further points from the wickedly impressive Pádraig Byrne pushed the visitors ahead after 20 of the second half and then came An Tochar's moment of magic.
A trundling gallop up the field from goalkeeper Mark Keenan caught Ballymanus unaware and the netminder picked out Stefan Collier who fed Eamonn Wolohan who slipped the ball to Gerard Byrne and he fired home a beauty to the delight of the vocal home crowd.
Having watched Keenan's foray forward, Ballymanus full-back Darragh Byrne decided he wanted some of that action and he made a burst into enemy territory before being fouled and as he set off on his return voyage back down the field he yelled to his attacking colleagues, 'Lads, it's not that hard, like'. His brother, Pádraig, dropped over the free to give Ballymanus a one-point advantage with seven to go.
The battle raged, and a foul on Gerard Byrne gave Swords a chance from a free and he took it sublimely to secure a share of the spoils although a late spurned goal chance for Cian McHugh and that blasted-over penalty earlier on would suggest that the home side may have dropped a point rather than saved a point.
Scorers - An Tochar: Gerard Byrne 1-1, Brendan Swords 0-2 (1f), Eamonn Wolohan 0-1, Conor Davis 0-1 (f), Cian McHugh 0-1 (f), William Halligan 0-1, Liam Gaffney 0-1.
Ballymanus: Pádraig Byrne 1-4 (2f), Colm Coogan 0-2, Liam Byrne 0-2.
An Tochar: Mark Keenan; Stephen Connor, Conor Short, Colm O'Brien; Eamonn Wolohan, Gerard Byrne, Sam Ireland; Ciaran Byrne, Conor Davis; Cian McHugh, Brendan Swords, Eoin Murphy; William Halligan, Stefan Collier, Liam Gaffney. Subs:
Ballymanus: Brendan Doyle; Paddy Byrne (Gap), Darragh Byrne, Aidan Byrne; Colm Coogan, Sean O'Neill, Liam Byrne; Brendan Whelan, Seamus Coogan, Roan Lynch, Pádraig Byrne, Darragh O'Keeffe; Ciaran Whelan, Paul Murray, Killian Farrar. Subs: Philip Coogan for A Byrne (BC)
Referee: Anthony Nolan (Baltinglass)
Wicklow People
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