February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Flynn
Rangers 1-16, Dublin 1-6
The halftime horn couldn’t have sounded sooner for Dublin. Thirty minutes into their Junior A football match with Rangers at Gaelic Park on Sunday, and Dublin had nothing but a Colm Wilson point to show for their efforts. Worse yet, their scoring deficiencies were being overshadowed by their defensive ineptitude. Rangers had already tallied a goal and 10 points and were well on their way to an impressive 1-16 to 1-6 victory.
“It was a really hot day, so we just made the best possible use of it,” said Rangers’ Davey Phelan, who scored the first four scores of the match and finished with 11 points. “We more or less had the game sewn up at halftime.”
Phelan was correct in both assessments. There were almost as many sunbathers as spectators in the stands on a sweltering afternoon, and Rangers were out to a tremendous lead after 30 minutes.
Rangers were absolutely dominant on both ends of the pitch, as Phelan teamed up with Aidan Bishop for a goal and eight points in the first half.
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Although Dublin had stretches where they played respectable football, they spent the majority of the half being completely outclassed. Wilson and Mick Crowley had opportunities, but neither man could get Dublin on the board.
Finally, after Bishop put a ball over the bar to give Rangers a gigantic 1-9 to 0-0 lead, Wilson converted a free that guaranteed Dublin would not be shut out completely.
Rangers sent in several subs for the second half and Dublin were able to put up a better fight. After Wilson notched the first two points of the second half for Dublin, Mike Bishop’s point made the score 1-11 to 0-3 in favor of Rangers.
Both teams traded goal chances midway through the half, but Rangers’ John Furlong and Dublin’s Dermot Rice were equal to the task.
Phelan notched three straight points to give Rangers a 13-point bulge, and finally sat down to recuperate from a well-played 50 minutes in stifling heat.
Shane Nugent added a degree of respectability to Dublin’s point total with less than 10 minutes to go, by sending home an opportunistic goal that made the score 1-15 to 1-5.
Rangers’ Johnny Murphy scored a point just before the final horn blew to provide the final margin of victory.
Rangers scorers: Phelan 1-8, A. Bishop and Murphy 0-3, M. Bishop 0-2.
Dublin: Wilson 0-4, Dalton 0-2, Nugent 1-0.