Irvinestown 1-13 

Tempo 3-11

Second half substitute Damian Kelly swooped for two goals to secure Tempo’s first win of the season in a high scoring encounter with Irvinestown. The bulk of those scores came in a second half that saw momentum swing from end to end with both sides playing some excellent football.

At the break, the sides were all square with Irvinestown hitting 1-03 to Tempo’s 0-06 but it was to be the Maguire’s ability to plunder goals that were to prove the difference in the second half.

“It is great to get the first win of the season,” explained Tempo manager Sean Breen after the game.

“To be honest we probably should have got some points already and were close in a number of games but just didn’t finish things out or get the rub of the green. It is important now that we build on that and try and get another few wins on the board.”

For Irvinestown boss Sean Donnelly, it was a case of back to back defeats and another game where he saw his side concede three goals: “We would not be happy with things defensively. If you are giving away three goals in a game then you are leaving yourself with a lot to do and we can’t be affording to do that and we need to get that fixed as soon as possible.”

Tempo started the game brightly with Aidan Breen signally his intent on proceedings early on with a number of points. He was joined on the scoresheet by Lorcan McStravick who was to be a thorn in the Irvinestown side all afternoon.

The home team recovered from this slow start however with all their first-half scores coming from the boot of Gary Maguire. A penalty and three free kicks from the veteran seeing his side enter the break on even terms.

Irvinestown lost the service of Liam Murphy to injury after ten minutes and this was compounded with a black card to Liam McQuaid just before the break. Things got worse for Donnelly’s men when they lost Benny Mccaffrey to a red card not long into the second half with Tempo already beginning to take a hold of the game with points from Ryan Ingram and Breen before Breen rattled the net for the first of the visitor’s goals.

It looked like Tempo would kick in from here but Irvinestown came back and through accurate Maguire free kicks and Stephen Sheridan points they once again had things tied up. Daryl Keenan was a second-half sub for Tempo and was proving influential before a black card cut short his day but his replacement, Damian Kelly, was to prove the match winner for the Tempo men.

His second goal came with ten minutes left and although Irvinestown again rallied led by Ronan Ormsby and Sheridan points. But Tempo once again caught the home side on the break with a well-worked move that finished with the evergreen Kelly dispatching to the net.

For the winners, Conor Foy was a rock in defence with Breen at midfield and McStravick and substitute Kelly in fine form in attack. Irvinestown meanwhile were best served by Sheridan in midfield and Paul Leonard in defence with Ormsby having his moments in attack.