No Hollywood ending in round 2

Intermediate Football Championship, Group Stage Round 2
16th May 2015 – Hollywood

Final score: Stratford Grangecon 1:07 V Baltinglass 1-11

Stratford/Grangecon suffered a defeat in the second round of the Intermediate Championship on Saturday (16th May) in Hollywood. A match, many neutral observers felt, we were unfortunate to lose. Regrettably, lady luck deserted us on this particular occasion.

The game was only 2 minutes on when our County panellist, Michael Mangan accidently twisted his knee forcing his departure from the game. Five minutes later, we suffered a second hammer blow when Patrick Walsh was red carded for what was deemed to be an attempted strike on his opponent.

Notwithstanding this adversity, Stratford/Grangecon showed their true spirit by taking the match to Baltinglass and actually lead by 2 points at the interval. Despite the numerical disadvantage, each player continued to dig deep, with a vintage display by Kieran Byrne assisted by Eoin O’Neill. Subsequently, they extended our lead in the second half and continued to hold the advantage until the last 5 minutes of the game. At this point of the match, Jason Bolger, who had been at the receiving end of a lot of attention, succumbed to a 2nd yellow card. By now we had lost our entire half back line and the gaping holes emerged. Consequently, Baltinglass managed to boot home a fortuitous goal followed by 2 points.

A brave and courageous effort by the team, unfortunately luck was not on our side and we went down on a final score line of 1-7 to 1-11.

Team: Patrick Cronin (Captain), Adam Doyle, Marcus Hanbidge, Chris Hanbidge, Michael Mangan 0-1, Jason Bolger, Paddy Walsh, Kieran Byrne 1-1(free), Eoin O’Neill, Mark Murphy 0-1, Mark Landon, Matt Manley, Mark Caplice 0-3(1 Free), Shane Byrne, Colin Byrne 0-1
Subs: James Barrett, Ian Moore, Jordan Lawrence, David Cush, Tom Sweeney