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Éire Óg regroup

Leinster SFC First Round/Éire Óg (Carlow) 3-9 Tullamore (Offaly) 1-8: New Carlow football champions Éire Óg staged a remarkable…

Mon Oct 29 2007 - 00:00

Leinster SFC First Round/Éire Óg (Carlow) 3-9 Tullamore (Offaly) 1-8:New Carlow football champions Éire Óg staged a remarkable recovery to eliminate Offaly champions Tullamore in this Leinster first-round tie at Dr Cullen Park Carlow yesterday.

The visitors played into the strong wind in the opening 30 minutes, but they were dominant for the opening quarter and raced 1-4 to 0-1 in front by the 17th minute.

It looked as if Tullamore's left-full forward Shane Dooley, son of former Offaly All-Ireland hurling star Joe, would demolish the Éire Óg challenge on his own.

Dooley recorded all of his side's opening five scores, the goal coming in the eighth minute, when a shot from Shaun Martin was blocked by Éire Óg goalkeeper Robert Moore but the resulting rebound was sent to the net by Dooley.

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Éire Óg were given a lifeline on 26 minutes when half-forward Alan Curran scored a fine goal and by half-time the Tullamore lead had been trimmed to two points - 1-6 to 1-4.

Within two minutes of the restart Éire Óg were in front for the first time.

Their outstanding wing back Paul Cashin lofted a ball over the Tullamore defence and corner forward Eric McCormack raced in to take possession and crash a shot to the back of the net.

Éire Óg went on to lead 2-9 to 1-6 by the 54th minute and Tullamore's only response was a brace of points late in the half from a Dooley free and a Shaun Martin effort from play.

Éire Óg wrapped up victory when full-forward Simon Rea slotted a penalty to the Tullamore net late in the game after great work by substitute James Reilly, Bryan Carbery and Derek Hayden had set up the spot-kick.

Éire Óg now advance to a second-round meeting at home against Tyrrellspass of Westmeath.

EIRE ÓG: R Moore; K Moran, S Myers, A Byrne (0-1); P Cashin, C McCarthy, J Ryan; P Kingston, D Hayden (0-4, frees); A Curran (1-0), T Dowling, B Carbery (0-1); E McCormack (1-0), S Rea (1-3, 1-0 pen, 0-2 frees), K Hession. Subs: D Walker for Hession; S Gannon for Dowling (inj); W Quinlan for McCarthy; J Reilly for McCormack.

TULLAMORE: K Furlong; S Egan, G Heffernan, M Conlon; J Keane, N Stack, P McConway; J O'Donoghue, K Hogan; K Duffy, I Dunne, S Martin (0-2); J Kenny, G O'Grady, S Dooley (1-6, three frees). Subs: R Monaghan for Duffy; N O'Donoghue for Stack; B Fagan for Dunne.

Referee: T Quigley (Wexford).