Charlestown Sarsfields mid season renaissance continued apace when they recorded a good victory over Ardnaree in round 6 of The Welcome Inn Senior league at a wet and rain soaked O`Hara Park recently.
The final score line of 2-12 to 0-11 was just about a fair reflection as Ardnaree to their credit belied their junior status to make a game of it and indeed could have been closer but for the concession of two rather soft goals which gave the home side the cushion to keep them at arms length for pretty much the duration of the match. The game was played in difficult conditions as rain cascaded down from start to finish.
The Sarsfields were quick off the blocks and an early Martin Mulvaney gave them the impetus to kick on and this they duly did and had 1-5 on the board before Ardnaree broke their duck. The visitors enjoyed something of a purple patch kicking four points on the bounce but all their hard work was undone with a bad defensive lapse with Colm Maye pouncing on the mistake to rattle the ball to the net to leave the scores 2-7 to 0-5. The North Mayo side did however end the half on something of a high with the final score, a good point from Eoghan McCormack to leave the half time score 2-7 to 0-6 in favour of the hosts.
Second Half
There was no let up in the driving rain and it was the visitors who enjoyed much the better of the opening ten minutes of the second half as they made some big inroads into their first half defecit by firing over three fine points in reply to just one for the Sarsfields.
The Ardnaree lads were far from overawed and showed buckets of spirit and resilience and competed vigorously in all areas of the field. They had the chances indeed to narrow the gap even further but poor shot selection and misplaced passes undermined a lot of their good approach play and they closest they got to the Sarsfields was three points with the hosts leading 2-8 to 0-11 and wobbling somewhat.
One always felt however that the home side had another gear and realising the Ardnaree threat was still very much alive and gaining traction they stirred themselves in the final ten and landed four points on the spin with Jack Reilly again underlining his accuracy with three fine scores to stave off the Ardnaree revival and restore the second half imbalance on the scoreboard from a Sarsfields perspective.
Moving On Up
The win moves the Sarsfields up to second in the table and keeps them firmly in contention for promotion. They are moving with a lot of fluidity and style at present and had good performances from Jack Reilly, Aidan Higgins who was excellent particularly in the second half, Colm Maye, Paul Mulligan, Gareth O`Donnell, Cathal Marren, Kevin Deignan, Patrick Walsh and Martin Mulvaney.
Ardnaree can take plenty from the match however and never shied away from it any stage and competed with plenty of honesty and endeavour and if they can cut down on the errors they look well placed to win the county junior championship and end a yawning gap stretching back to 1971 for their last success in this grade.
