While Annacurra’s previous Wicklow League Division 1 game against Tinahely was bathed in glorious sunshine, their most recent outing which took place in the beautifully picturesque setting of Billy Byrne Park, Askanagap was bathed in well, water. The recent enjoyable sunshine has departed and left in its place wet overcast weather and that is what faced the players, officials and supporters for both Annacurra and Ballymanus as they forced themselves out of bed for the early 11:30 kick off, got to early mass, (for those of them who aren’t heathens like your correspondent), and got lost on the way up to the Billies home pitch, to watch the two local rivals line out against each other in the senior league this bank holiday Sunday.

The conditions were going to make football difficult. While the Billies pitch was well maintained the surface was still very wet and greasy due to the recent rainfall. This provided difficulties for the players in maintaining their footing and keeping control of the ball. Indeed there were a number of instances of players slipping while moving across the wet surface and many handling errors because of the slippery ball, particularly at the beginning of the match as the opposing sides grappled to get used to the conditions and each other.

Annacurra opened the scoring on the 4th minute when Clive Horan stroked a well worked point over the Billies black spot from open play. Ballymanus responded in kind and leveled the scores with a Mícheál Stapleton point from play. This was to be the last time in the game that Ballymanus were level with Annacurra and within 15 minutes the Annacurra men despite the difficult playing conditions had a 4 point lead.

Ian McDonald re-opened the Annacurra lead on the 9th minute with an assured free from a medium distance and Alan Byrne roared up the field from the kickout to claim the first of his scores from play that were to set the tone for his impressive performance. Just two minutes later he repeated the act and scored his second valuable point from play. Peter Clancy then increased the Annacurra margin to 4 on the 15th minute with a well taken point from play.

This signalled a resurgence from Ballymanus and they reacted with their second point on the 19th minute and their third on the 23rd to make the scores 5 points to Annacurra and 3 to Annacurra. The Billies were starting to assert their dominance on the play with their midfield coming into the game and Mícheál Stapleton who started at centre forward looking particularly threatening. Annacurra in previous games have had a tendency to go out of the match in the crucial few minutes before and after the interval. So things were not looking the best at this stage for the men in the green and gold.

However, cometh the hour, cometh the man as they say, or in this case the men.

With the Wicklow senior footballers unfortunate defeat to Meath last weekend the Annacurra men on the county panel were available for club action again. Alan Byrne and Frank Clune returned to the fold and showed why Harry Murphy and before him Mick O’Dwyer had put their faith in them. In Fact Frank lined out during the junior match against Kiltegan during the week in a display of just how eager he was to get into competitive football.

With the Billies entering the ascendancy and Annacurra’s tendency not to do well just before or after the interval it was important for the leaders on the Annacurra team to front up and Annacurras’ two county men did just that. First was Alan with a wonder goal stuck on the 27th minute which was incredibly important to re-assert Annacura’s control of the match. It was all the more spectacular for that fact that despite slipping on the greasy surface Alan still managed to direct a fantastic shot past the Ballymanus goalkeeper from beyond the 21 yard line and into the bottom left hand corner of the net. Your correspondent has not yet had a chance to speak to Alan about his effort but it is fully expected that Alan will assert his intention to rattle the net all along as he lined up his shot and it was not just a fortuitous accident that he fell on his backside when going for a point and fluked a goal as some disbelievers may have mistakenly thought on the sideline.

This put Annacurra 1 – 5 to 3 points up with three minutes of the first half left to play. Annacurra then continued to close out the first half in a positive manner by earning a 45 from the Ballymanus men that Frank Clune approached coolly and calmly to display his leadership abilities to duly put the ball over the bar and make the lead at halftime 6 points to the Annacurra good.

Alan lined out in the Annacurra half back line alongside Vincent Flaherty at centre back and Martin O’Brien on the other wing. All three in the half back line did well. Alan was responsible for winning much ball throughout the field, be it breaking ball from kick outs or timely interventions between the Annacurra 45 and 65 yard lines to rob his man of possession. All the way up to interceptions between Ballyamnus’s 21 and 45 after he had sortied into the opposition half to put them under pressure. This along with his vital on field leadership, his scoring tally of 1 – 2 and the excellent balls he played into the Annacurra forwards in addition to his penetrating runs that wrought havoc in the oppostions defense earned him the AnnacurraGAAClub.com man of the match award, although there were other contenders for this accolade also.

Vincent Flaherty unfortunately had to be substituted on the 45 minute mark because of a hamstring strain he picked up during his supreme efforts as centre back. Hopefully Vincent will be ok for the forthcoming Annacurra fixtures as he has dominated the centre back position of late and added stability and strength to the Annacurra defence. His performance against the Billies was no different, opposing players found it incredibly difficult to break through the Green and Gold wall positioned on the Annacurra 45 yard line that Vincent was in no small part responsible for erecting. This combined with fine ball played into the Annacurra forwards and the timely point he scored in the second half rounded off an outstanding game by the converted Carnew man.

When Vincent had to come off injured Nevan O’Sullivan got the nod over his older brother Jack because of Jacks responsibilities with his forthcoming leaving cert examinations and came on in the left half back positions. Nevan did not disappoint for the 15 minutes or thereabouts of the match he played. While Annacurra were never really threatened during Nevan’s tour on the pitch he still defended admirably when called upon to and his efforts in the Ballymanus half of the field were impressive. His work rate and commitment were heartening to see from such a young player. Martin O’Brien dominated the other half back position for Annacurra and covered the centre half back one when Vincent had to be taken off. Again Martin’s efforts were herculean. His intelligent use of space when playing ball into the forwards was very threatening to the opposition and his defensive duties were never shirked or under par. Martin has come into his own in the last few games this year and should take heart and satisfaction from his efforts of late.

Again Robert Fitzgerald lined out between the posts for Annacurra and had to put his body on the line in the  second half to keep out a long range ball floated at the Annacurra goal which lead to him jumping into the upright in what could have been a nasty knock. Luckily however he was unhurt and had cleared his line. Bob successfully kept a clean sheet and proved very competent under any highball the Billies speculatively floated into the Annacurra square while his kick outs were long distance and accurate, providing the basis for much of Annacurra’s large share of the possession.

In front of Bob stood the indomitable full back trio of Neil Henry, Ciaran Byrne and Liam Moules. Niall Henry took the place of Shane McAllister who was still celebrating his marriage to his new wife Aideen and AnnacurraGAAClub.com would like to take this oppurtunity to pass on our best wishes for the happy couples future together. Congratulations Shane and Aideen!

While Neil may have had to understudy in the corner back position this year he certainly proved his worth and shouted out for a starting position in the future. Liam and Shane had better be on their best performances with Neil looking over their shoulders in the manner he is. Luckily enough Liam Moules was giving his usual best performance, despite having to help Shane and Aideen celebrate their marriage and still suffering for such he managed to put in an excellent performance. Matching Liams excellent performance was also the performance of Ciaran Byrne at full back who once again look strong and assured in front of the Annacurra large rectangle. The fact that little can be written about the three stalwarts in the full back line is really because there was relatively little ball making its way into the Ballymanus inside forwards and that ball that did make it in was effectively dealt with by the three men in the full back line.

Someone else who was suffering from the joyous celebration of Shane and Aideen’s wedding was Mick O’Brien who lined out at half forward. This either had no effect on Mick or he just fought through the lack of sleep and used it as motivation to redouble his efforts. Mick has had a resurgence in the Annacurra half forward line this year upon his return to the squad after being unavailable due to work commitments and a wet Sunday morning in Askanagap was no different as he plucked high balls out of the sodden sky to turn the screw on the Billies when needed. He was ably assisted on the other wing by Shane O’Keeffe who has also found form on his move to the 45 from the inside forwards. Once again Shane looked committed and busy around the park and his blistering runs and incisive balls into the inside forwards helped to brighten up a day made miserable by the conditions. However the star of the half forward line on Sunday had to be Clive Horan who very narrowly lost out on the AnnacurraGAAClub.com man of the match award. Clive scored two important points, both from play at critical junctures of the game but his biggest contribution was between the 45 yard lines where he covered much ground and won any ball that came near him and some that weren’t that close to him at all. At one stage while surrounded by a forest of Billies players, with the ball on the deck and having been forced to his knees Clive managed to still play the ball excellently with one foot out of the thicket of Ballymanus men and to one of his own.

The redoutable pairing of Peter Clancy and Paul McDonald once again lined out in the middle of park. Peter made a lot of “air” during the match as he leaped into the overcast sky reaching for every ball that approached the middle third of pitch. He was responsible for cleanly winning or breaking to Annacurra’s advantage a lot of ball from both sides kickouts. Meanwhile Paul McDonald as usual put himself about the field making life uncomfortable for any Billy that came near him and putting them under pressure while they were in possession. He also tracked back into the Annacurra half several times to help his comrades in defence and was unlucky to not get on the score sheet with two good efforts that narrowly went wide, including one from his less favoured left boot.

The team was rounded out in the inside forward line by Patrick Moules and Frank Clune in the corners and Ian McDonald at full forward. Despite a large amount of the possession being in Annacurra’s favour during the game there was still somewhat of a lack of scorable ball into the danger men in front of the Billies goal to allow them to show their their potential. Frank racked up three very good scores, one each from play, a free and a very well struck 45 and looked dangerous and sharp when he was on the ball while spraying it around the inside forwards despite his lack of match practice lately due to his county commitments. Ian scored a point from a free and was on the ball several times to lay passes off to his fellow forwards and make threatening runs, while Patrick looked threatening and dangerous when on the ball and making defence splitting off the ball runs.

When we returned for the second half the Annacurra men faded a bit and the Billies opened the scoring on the 32nd minute to make the match 1 -6 to 4 points in Annacurra’s favour. While the Green and Gold had dominated the closing part of the first half they were less dominant in the opening minutes of the second half and may wish to improve their focus in future games to try to control the restart better if possible. Also of concern was the lack of conversion of possession and scoring changes into scores. While running out 7 point eventual winners was obviously a fantastic result for the derry men it could have been more if more of the chances and sorties into the Billies half had been capitalised on. However, to be fair the conditions made scoring difficult and this would have have had a large impact on the conversion attempts so it is not all bad news.

While the Billies may have opened the scoring in the second half and asserted an early dominance after the restart the men from Annacurra didn’t let that phase them and in a 13 minute portion of the second half between the 34th and 47th minutes they took control of the match and put the game beyond the Billies by scoring 4 points without responce to put the match on a sure footing of 1 – 10 to 4 points with just over 10 minutes left to play. Frank got two of the points, one from play and one free while Vinny and Clive also tacked on points of their own to turn the screw on the Ballymanus men.

The Billies then started a late rally to score two points before the close of play but it was too late for the men from the hills at that stage and the game was sealed in Annacurra’s favour.

This result was a great one for Annacurra as it puts them in 5th place in Division 1. (Please see here for the division table). Not only does it hopefully secure Annacurra’s tenure in the top flight for next year but it also offers the tantalising opportunity of a semi final place if we can keep up the good form and the results go our way. Lets not get too carried away with ourselves though, there’s still a long road to go with another 6 league games to be played including tough opposition against the likes of Rathnew and Blessington.

In the not too distant future though Annacurra open their championship campaign against An Tochar at 1:30 on Sunday the 10th of June in Aughrim. This is a big match for the lads and we would like to wish them the best of luck and ask all Annacurra supporters to try to turn out to shout the Green and Gold on and show their support.

AnnacurraGAAClub.com would like to wish much lluck to Jack O’Sullivan as he sits his leaving cert this week.

Final score: Annacurra 1-10 – Ballymanus 0-6

AnnacurraGAAClub.com Man of the Match: Alan Byrne

Annacurra Team:
Robert Fitzgerald, Neil Henry, Ciaran Byrne, Liam Moules, Martin O’Brien, Vincent Flaherty, Alan Byrne, Peter Clancy, Paul McDonald, Michael O’Brien, Clive Horan, Shane O’Keefe, Patrick Moules, Ian McDonald, Frank Clune.

Subs:
Nevan O’Sullivan (for Liam Moules on 45mins), Jack O’Sullivan, James Fitzgerald, Jack Keenan, Chris Keogh.

James, Jack Keenan and Chris all came on at the end of the match just before the referee blew the final whistle and were unlucky to not get more time on the ball to showcase their skills and abilities.

Annacurra Scorers:
Clive Horan: 2 points (both from play)
Ian McDonald: 1 point (free)
Alan Byrne: 1 – 2 (all from play)
Peter Clancy: 1 point (play)
Frank Clune: 3 points, (1 45, 1 from play and 1 free)
Vincent Flaherty: 1 point from play