xPs never materialised for wasteful O'Mahonys

FEIS CUP

Those familiar with soccer analysis will know that xG (expected goals) has become part of mainstream punditry jargon. If such a statistic existed in gaelic football (xP?), there is no doubt who the winners of this round three Feis Cup clash would have been. Alas - championships, leagues and cups aren’t handed out according to who has created the best scoring chances, and O’Mahonys were made to rue their wasteful shooting as Summerhill snuck a fiercely contested encounter, 1-11 to 2-7.

The early exchanges were frenetic, with the torrential conditions contributing to an exciting game of football.

The home side, showing no evidence of a hangover from their heavy defeat a week prior, pressed Summerhill high up the pitch and forced a number of excellent turnovers through a combination of unforced errors and hard graft by their midfield and half-forwards. This early endeavour was not capitalised upon, and the Brews Hill side dropped several shots into the Summerhill goalkeeper’s grateful arms.

Summerhill were content to drop deep and invite pressure from the home side, and the teams were level at 0-2 apiece when a counter-attack from the visitors yielded a point just before the first water break.

Following another free from Diarmuid McCabe, who was deadly from the deck all evening, O’Mahonys entered a purple patch, scoring 1-2 in the space of three second-half minutes. Frees from Evan Coffey and Seán Walsh were followed by a deserved home goal.

A looping effort from the right hand side was anticipated well by Duggie Dillon, who showed poacher’s instincts to lurk in the goalkeeper’s blind spot and palm the ball to the net, putting O’Mahonys ahead approaching the interval.

Summerhill rallied before half-time with two unanswered points to leave the smallest of margins at the break.

The pivotal goal came just after half-time. Summerhill transitioned quickly from defence to attack and managed to free up Cian Devlin on the left-hand side who finished low to the bottom corner.

O’Mahonys dominated the next period, but did not make it count on the score board. Further missed chances meant that a full 12 minutes elapsed without a score, before Summerhill tacked on another point.

O’Mahonys replied with a goal through the evergreen Stephen Bray whose low, driven effort was a fair reward for a period of pressure that also yielded a point from Dillon. The game was on a knife-edge and O’Mahonys led by the minimum as they regrouped for a final water break.

The margins were always going to be tight here, and the Hoops’ were dealt a blow when Alan Forde, who had worked tirelessly all night as their spare man, was shown a black card for a mistimed tackle in midfield.

Summerhill made this numerical advantage count, and immediately added two scores to regain a one point lead.

McCabe stretched this lead to two points before Bray and Conor Frayne swapped points in the 29th minute. O’Mahonys came up just short in their search for an equaliser, and a free from Eoin Joyce came a little too late to grab a share of the spoils.

Navan O’Mahonys - Colm Honan; Evan Brady, Mike O’Reilly, Paddy Dillon; James O’Reilly, Alan Forde, Aodhán Mallon; Conor Finnegan, Evan Coffey (0-1); Darragh Maguire (0-1), Duggie Dillon (1-1), Ruairí Smyth; Eoin Joyce (0-1), Jake Regan (0-1), Seán Walsh (0-1). Subs - Stephen Bray (1-1) for Regan, Seán Smyth for R Smyth, Jack Bellamy for Coffey, Clayton O’Sullivan for Walsh, Sam Formosa for Maguire.