St James 2-10

Donoughmore 0-7

TOM LYONS REPORTS

GOALS from corner forward Ian Evans helped St James kick off their county league Division 7 campaign with a deserved home win.

In between, the hosts were clearly the better side at Ardfield on Saturday as promoted Donoughmore got a taste of what is needed to step up from junior league to county league.

‘I’d have to be pleased with that,’ admitted St James manager Alan O’Shea.

‘We have a good bit of pre-season work done and our work-rate was excellent. We fought very hard against the breeze in that second half and we took our scores well.

‘We have a good blend of youth and experience, about five of the lads are over 35, and they are bringing on the young lads nicely. Mícheál McCarthy, who had a great game at corner back, is 43.

‘We’d have been very disappointed with last year’s championship but with Kilmac gone now, the race is wide open this season. It’s up to ourselves to get the job done and this was a good start in a very competitive section. We’ll motor on from here.’

Thankfully the rain had stopped as the game got underway and the pitch was in remarkably good conditions despite the recent weather.

Playing with the diagonal breeze, the Saints looked sharper in attack. Courtesy of a goal from Evans in the seventh minute, well set up by young Liam Dooley, they led by five points at the end of the first quarter, 1-2 to 0-0. The home team’s points came from the strong Aaron Hayes and full forward James O’Driscoll.

Donnchadh Morrissey opened Donoughmore’s scoring in the 16th minute but they were to score only one more point in the half, from Declan Keating in the 29th minute. Without setting the world on fire, the Saints registered four points, from Donncha McCarthy, Aaron Hayes whose surging runs caused the Donoughmore backs lots of problems, James O’Driscoll and Ian Evans (free).

It was 1-6 to 0-2 at the break, and only one more point was registered in the third quarter, from Saints’ James O’Driscoll. The move of O’Driscoll to midfield changed the whole momentum of the game, as he also did some great covering in defence and the locals played their best football of the game in the last quarter.

St James, against the breeze, then kicked three unanswered points from Aaron Hayes, Joe O’Sullivan and Ian Evans (free).

Ten points behind and having failed to score with the breeze in that second half, Donoughmore sub Jack Murphy finally split the posts with a point, followed by a two-pointer from play. Declan Hayes followed with a two-pointer from a free as they put a respectable look on the scoreboard.

It was St James who had the last say when Ian Evans lobbed the goalkeeper for his second goal.

Our Star: James O’Driscoll was the stand-out figure, first at full forward where he scored three points, then at midfield and also helping out in defence.

Scorers 

St James: Ian Evans 2-2 (2f); Aaron Hayes, James O’Driscoll 0-3 each; Donncha McCarthy, Joe O’Sullivan 0-1 each.

Donoughmore: Jack Murphy (2pt), Declan Keating (2ptf) 0-3 each; Donnchadh Morrissey 0-1.

St James: Niall Evans; Mícheál McCarthy (B), Kevin O’Leary, Joseph O’Sullivan; Charlie McShane, Cristóir Hayes, Cathal Hennessy; Conor Whelton, Donncha McCarthy; Conor Hayes, Joe O’Sullivan, Aaron Hayes; Liam Dooley, James O’Driscoll, Ian Evans.

Subs: Mark Evans for D McCarthy (40), Adrian Whelton for J O’Sullivan (48), Jack Butler for C McShane (53), Seán O’Connor for C Whelton (57).

Donoughmore: Kevin O’Riordan; Frankie Honohan, Kieran McCarthy, Seán Broderick; DJ Foley, Josh Crowley, Finn O’Callaghan, Jack Honohan, Rory Honohan, David O’Connell, Donnchadha Morrissey, Kevin O’Connell, Declan Keating, Gavin O’Sullivan, Jack McCarthy.

Subs: Darragh Lawton for C Hennessy (35), Jack Murphy for D Morrissey (50), Daniel Honohan for J McCarthy (52), John Forde for J Honohan (55), Alan Jones for K McCarthy (57).

Referee: Michael O’Mahony (Kilbrittain).