Impressive Shamrocks run riot to leave stricken Edenderry with serious soul searching to do

SHAMROCKS took a significant step forward with a ruthless demolition of a dreadfully out of sorts Edenderry in round 2 of the Offaly Senior Football Championship in Mucklagh on Saturday evening.

Tullamore Court Hotel Senior Football Championship Group 1 Round 2

Shamrocks 6-18

Edenderry 0-7

With two points to add to the one they collected in the first round against Rhode, Shamrocks should make the quarter-finals and that has been their initial target for the season. The Rahan parish side took a brave decision when opting to go into the strong group this year, instead of forcing a toss with Bracknagh to decide who went into the weak group.

It was the right thing to do for a club with ambition, who have turned a big corner in the past couple of years but it was also a risky one and had the capacity to back-fire. Instead it has yielded rich dividends and their opening two games will bring a very hard working outfit on a tonne.

The scoreline says it all here and there is a temptation to give precedence to the plight of Edenderry. It is just twelve months ago since they walloped Rhode in the first round and went well in the group, though they imploded badly in the semi-final. They have, however, fallen off a cliff this year and this was a defeat and performance of crisis proportions for them – they competed okay against Tullamore in the first half of their opening round but were blown out of the water within a few minutes of the restart and they continued on in that vein the whole way here.

Shamrocks will be delighted with the win. With games to come against Tullamore and Ferbane, this was a huge one for them and a defeat would have left them staring an early exit in the face. Instead, they performed at a high level right from the start and had the game won remarkably early. They had 4-3 scored before Edenderry got their first points, a two point free from goalkeeper Stephen McGlynn in the 19th minute.

They were 5-7 to 0-3 ahead at half time with Edenderry not managing a point from play in the first half. You can very seldom say never in football but with Shamrocks having the wind in the second half and playing down the Mucklagh incline, this game was over at the break.

The home side added 1-11 to their tally in the second half with a stricken Edenderry only managing four points.

It was a very good performance by Shamrocks and it seems almost churlish to pick any holes in it but a caveat does have to be provided. As well as they played, it was far from flawless and their error count was actually quite high at times. Some of that may have been down to the ease with which things came and it was hard to stay fully focused the whole way through but manager Nigel Dunne will be keeping feet very much on the ground in the next few weeks.

Tullamore will provide a much more honest assessment of where Shamrocks are in the next round and two things can be said here: Shamrocks were made look better than they are by a shocking Edenderry display and while a 25 point winning margin is as convincing as it comes, this display would not win a semi-final or final – there was a few too many turnovers and sloppy play for that but maybe] against better opposition, they would have tuned in and had much less of those.

Shamrocks can be very pleased with the way they played and the result but it was a horrible, very hard watch for the travelling contingent. With star forward, Cian Farrell in America, other long serving players having opted out of senior football, Edenderry are in a rebuilding phase but this was a bolt from the blue for them. There was just no hiding place for them and some of their football was calamitious.

Shamrocks opened them up with alarming ease and looked like scoring goals every time they attacked in the first half. They could very easily have reached double figures in goals and may have done so if they had really went for them in the second half.

With three members of the Offaly senior football team, Lee Pearson, Jordan Hayes and Rory Egan and panel member Harry Goulding in their ranks, Edenderry should not be this bad. Their key men once again showed the effects of a long county season and they have been off the boil in the last two games. Pearson actually started well here, keeping tight tabs on Jack Bryant but such was the volume of ball coming in and men running through unopposed that it was not long before he drifted out of it.

Rhode's win over Ferbane on Friday night turned this into a must win game for Shamrocks and they attacked it in that vein, treating it as knockout football. They simply had to win it and a defeat would have left them hanging by a thread with games to come against Tullamore and Ferbane. It changes their season now and Shamrocks are a force of some sort – you absolutely could not say that they will win a championship at the moment and they may be a little bit short of that. The jury is very much out on their title prospects but what we can say is that they are improving, they are working hard, they have a decent team and it will take a good team to beat them – reaching the final is a realistic goal for them and that is a great place to be.

It was a complete off day by Edenderry and they seemed stunned by the intensity and pace of Shamrocks' play from the start. Frequent raids up field by Shane O'Toole-Greene and David O'Rourke were pivotal to Shamrocks' establishing an early foothold and O'Rourke got in for a fifth minute goal to give them a 1-1 to no score lead. Scott Delaney added a great goal in the 9th minute and Shamrocks had 2-3 on the board before Jordan Hayes had Edenderry's first wide in the 11th minute.

It went for bad to worse for Edenderry as Padraig Cantwell and Sean O'Toole, a penalty after Cantwell was fouled, gave Shamrocks a remarkable 4-3 to no score lead by the 15th minute. Edenderry finally began to work harder in the second quarter and had some good moments but didn't look like scoring from play – Dan Heffernan added a fifth goal in the 28th minute and Edenderry's evening was summed up when they had a tap over free overturned for a three man breach by their forwards in injury time, and the free was given at the other end with Jack Bryant converting.

Shamrocks' controlled the game impressively on the restart, adding three points before Cian Murphy got Edenderry's fifth point in the 37th minute. Jack Bryant punched Shamrocks sixth goal in the 38th minute and the remainder was a non event with the winners in a comfort zone, Edenderry a beaten docket.

MATCH ANALYSIS

SEE NEXT: Spirited Rhode snatch dramatic win from jaws of defeat

MAN OF THE MATCH

Shane O'Toole-Greene (Shamrocks): Shamrocks midfielder Andrew Delaney staked a strong claim and he had an excellent game, especially in the second half. Him and the veteran Scott Delaney performed at a high level as they controlled the midfield zone and Andrew Delaney is a hugely important player for them.

I have no hestitation, however, in opting for Shane O'Toole-Greene as his performance in the first half was instrumental in them having the game won at half time. Joint Offaly senior football manager, Declan Kelly, who stepped down recently, was not universally popular in Shamrocks and he had a couple of very passionate critics in the club. However, they owe him a debt of gratitude for the way Shane O'Toole-Greene has transformed into one of the top footballers in Offaly – Kelly and Mickey Harte showed faith in him and it has paid off for county and club.

The youngest of three brothers in the Shamrocks squad – Johnny played the full game here while David is facing a few weeks out with a shoulder injury -, he ran the game here in the first half. He attacked brilliantly, defended competently and nearly always took the right option.

David O'Rourke was also immense in that first half with him and O'Toole-Greene responsible for so many scoring attacks – the big difference between him and the Shamrocks' captain was that O'Rourke's error count was considerably higher.

Padraig Cantwell and Jack Bryant were also brilliant for Shamrocks.

THE SCORERS

Shamrocks: Jack Bryant 1-7 (2f), Scott Delaney and Dan Heffernan 1-1 each, Sean O'Toole (penalty), David O'Rourke and Padraig Cantwell 1-0 each, Shane O'Toole-Greene, Nigel Dunne and Darragh Bryant (2f) 0-2 each, Andrew Delaney, Conor Egan and Eoghan Neville 0-1 each.

Edenderry: Cian Murphy 0-3 (1f), Stephen McGlynn 0-2 (2pf), Aaron Murphy and Kaelem Bryant (f) 0-1 each.

THE TEAMS

SHAMROCKS: Sean O'Toole; Adam Keyes, Padraig Cantwell, Gary Hutchinson; Kieran Dolan, Shane O'Toole-Greene, David O'Rourke; Andrew Delaney, Scott Delaney; Conor Egan, Alan Heffernan, Dan Heffernan; Darragh Bryant, Johnny O'Toole-Greene, Jack Bryant. Subs – Donal Dooley for Neville (45m), Nigel Dunne for Heffernan (45m), Eoghan Neville for O'Rourke (54m).

EDENDERRY: Stephen McGlynn; Darragh Farrell, Callum Dunne, Lkee Pearson; Rory Egan, Dylan Byrne, Harry Goulding; Jordan Hayes, Joe Bergin; Mark Abbott, Cian Murphy, Cillian Lowry; Daithi Brady, Aaron Murphy, Kaelem Bryan. Subs – Mason Farrell for McGlynn (16m), Joe Bergin for Brady (48m), Daithi Brady for Goulding (59m).

Referee – Fergal Smyth, Kilclonfert.

REFEREE WATCH

Fergal Smyth handled it well with no big issues. He was in complete control and it was an easy game to referee.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

David O'Rourke's excellent fourth minute goal showed all that was so good for Shamrocks in the first half – Shane O'Toole-Greene burst forward at play and O'Rourke's finish was top notch. It gave Shamrocks the confidence to push on and Edenderry were beaten much earlier than anyone could have anticipated.

VENUE WATCH

Mucklagh is a fine venue, albeit with limited parking. Shamrocks got additional parking in the nearby Mucklagh Community Centre and had a good traffic plan in place to manage the anticipated big crowd. The host club went out of their way to create a good atmosphere with music blaring before the game and an excellent local singer performing the National Anthem – they ticked all the boxes and the only slight negative was that the timer on the scoreboard was two minutes fast the whole way during the second half, presumably from not being reset at half time, but it didn't matter here.

WHAT'S NEXT

Edenderry play Ferbane while Shamrocks meet holders Tullamore.

STATISTICS

Wides: Shamrocks - 5 (3 in first half); Edenderry – 11 (5 in first half).

Yellow cards: Shamrocks – 0; Edendery – 1 (Joe Bergin).

Black cards: 0

Red cards: 0