Impressive and improving Tubber get away for deserved win

HAVING stuttered and stumbled their way through the group, Tubber have moved into form at the right time and they qualified for the semi-finals of the Senior “B” Football Championship with a convincingly easy win over Gracefield in Tullamore on Saturday afternoon.

Tullamore Court Hotel Senior “B” Football Championship quarter-final

Tubber 1-16

Gracefield 1-7

Tubber were the better side for nearly the whole game and while it was only inside the last ten minutes that they were able to operate in a comfort zone, there was no disputing the merit of their win.

Anything other than a Tubber win would have been an extraordinary result considering the way this went. Gracefield were very mediocre on the day, offering very little as a competitive force. They never truly got up to the pace of it and their work rate as way below what it needed to be at times as they just gave too much room to Tubber players – and didn't close them down.

Yet they were still in it at the three quarter way stage. They trailed by just three points, 1-10 to 1-7 at that stage and there was a possibility of a real against the heads snatch and grab win. It didn't happen as Tubber finally woke up to the danger and got the final six points without reply to win by nine.

That winning margin was a fair reflection of the way this went and Tubber really should have had the issue put to bed much earlier. They were the better team from the start but they concededed an extremely soft goal, missed four goal chances and had fifteen wides, ten in the first half. They hit the woodwork three times and were on top in almost every sector.

Despite those misses and the fact that they left themselves vulnerable for way longer than it should have been, it was a decent, quietly convincing display by Tubber. They were solid, they did the simple things well and they attacked with intelligence. 47 year old Ciaran McManus and Bernard Allen led the way for them – McManus operated in a fairly small zone around midfield, conserving his energy cleverly and distributed in good ball while finding the range with some excellent long range placed kicks.

Allen was superb, scoring 1-4 and dictating the flow of pace. Eddie Kavanagh, Ciaran Allen, extremely solid in a new centre half back role, Pauric Robbins, Patrick Farrell, Sean Farrell and Dan Kelleher also impressed for the winners.

It was a bad day at the office for Gracefield. Jack Walsh and Stephen Flanagan threatened at times in their attack in the first half while Mark Ward, Cian Murphy and Niall Smith had good spells for them but as a unit Gracefield didn't play well enough for long enough to win it.

Gracefield trailed by 0-9 to 1-4 at half time and were very happy to be in that position as they had been comprehensively outplayed. Tubber led by 0-6 to 0-1 after thirteen minutes and should have been much further ahead as they had six wides while a Pauric Robbins goal shot was well saved by Jonathan Knight. They were 0-7 to 0-3 ahead when Gracefield got back into it with a very lucky 17th minute goal – a long Cian Murphy goal was completely misjudged by Jamie Colgan, bounced over his head and Jamie Hanlon tapped to the net.

Bernard Allen hit the cross bar with a powerful shot at the other end and was also wide with a good goal chance as Tubber held that two point half time lead.

Tubber took a while to pull away in the second half. They did take control inside the first minute with a soccer style goal from Bernard Allen and that 1-9 to 1-4 lead was a more accurate reflection of their dominance. They had a few more wides and Gracefield hung on by their finger tips – they were only three points behind with thirteen minutes left but ran out of steam and Tubber got away late on for a fully deserved win.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Bernard Allen (Tubber): A choice between Ciaran McManus and Bernard Allen. Allen gets the nod. He oozed quality, scored 1-4, distributed very well and was a major factor in their win.

THE SCORERS

Tubber: Bernard Allen 1-4, Ciaran McManus 0-5 (3f an 1 '45'), Patrick Farrell 0-3 (2m), Pauric Robbins 0-2, Joe Higgins and Eoin Murphy (m) 0-1 each.

Gracefield: Jamie Hanlon 1-0, Jack Walsh 0-3 (2f), Stephen Flanagan 0-2 (1f), Paddy Dempsey and Jake Nichol 0-1 each.

THE TEAMS

TUBBER: Jamie Colgan; Nigel Farrell, Eddie Kavanagh, David Colgan; Lee Colgan, Ciaran Allen, Joe Higgins; Pauric Robbins, Ciaran McManus; Sean Farrell, Bernard Allen, Brian Kelly; Ronan Farrell, Dan Kelleher, Patrick Farrell. Subs – Eoin Murphy for Kelleher (47m), Ciaran McGuinness for Ronan Farrell (56m), Michael Grennan for Kelly (60m), Eoin Dunne for Robbins (60m).

GRACEFIELD: Jonathan Knight; Conor Shortall, Mark Ward, Patrick Hurley; Ciaran Conroy, Cian Murphy, David Hickey; Jason Slattery, Philip Hurley; Paddy Dempsey, Jack Walsh, Niall Smith; Jason Knight, Stephen Flanagan, Jamie Hanlon. Subs – Jake Nichol for Jason Knight (HT), Tom Walsh for Flanagan (40m), Ruari Allen for Hanlon (40m), Conor Storey for Hickey (48m), Tristan Hunt for Conroy (55m).

Referee – Marius Stones (Clara).