GAA: Moortown snatch points late in Pomeroy

The first half was played in atrocious conditions, with the lashing rain very much affecting the quality of play.

Pomeroy played with a strong wind at their back in the opening half, and ran up a four point lead early on.

Hugh McNamee and Brendan Burns were both on target for the Plunketts with points from play, before McNamee added two frees.

Moortown were struggling to make headway, however, Ryan Kelly doing well to create a goal chance that was blocked down.

The same player opened Moortown’s account from a free a minute later, before again making a charge on the Pomeroy goalmouth that resulted in referee Shane Dorrity awarding a penalty after Kelly was bundled over by McGeary.

Brian McLernon stepped up for the spot-kick, but drove it over the crossbar for a point that was then followed up by a Kelly free on sixteen minutes to bring the St Mary’s back within one.

Pomeroy responded with John Loughan rounding off a good move that included Chris Colhoun and Oliver McCreesh point. The wind was still playing a big factor in the game, and it helped McGeary land two big scores from play to stretch Pomeroy’s lead.

Moortown were having to work hard to get up the field, but they had Anthony Devlin coming to the fore at midfield, and found scores through Shea Kelly and Patrick Quinn.

Quinn also had a goal chance snuffed out by the Plunketts defence after he was picked out with a good pass from Tony Quinn.

A Justin Lambe point for Pomeroy was the final action of the half, and both teams trudged off with the home side three up.

After the break the weather eventually let up, but the quality of the football didn’t improve, with both teams still guilty of sloppy handling and poor passing.

It took eight minutes of second half play for Shea Kelly to restart the scoring, as he spilt the posts twice to cut the gap back to the minimum.

Pomeroy made several substitutions, and were dominating possession, but it wasn’t being made count on the scoreboard. eventually McGeary found some room to fire over for a point that was followed by a neat score from the newly introduced Ryan Loughran as the game entered the final ten minutes.

Credit to Moortown, howeverm as the mounted their late challenge, and continued pressure saw them win three frees in scoring positions, with Tony Quinn making no mistake each time.

This set up a dramatic finish to what had been a drab half of football, and with the visitors in the ascendency, McLernon was the man to fire over the the left footed winner, atoning for his earlier penalty miss.

Pomeroy had a chance at the death to snatch a draw, with Hugh McGeary being dragged down by Ryan Kelly. Hugh McNamee missed the kick, alas, and Moortown held on for one more kickout before referee Dorrity called time on the game.

Moortown were jubilant at the final whistle of what was a hard fought and important away win, while Pomeroy will be disappointed as to how they performed, particularly in the second half.