Owens delighted with first championship win since 2014

Goals were decisive in Kinawley on Sunday afternoon as Teemore avenged last year’s defeat to Tempo to book their place in the last four of the Quinn Building Products SFC.

The key scores in the game arrived in the first half with Ryan Maguire and Barry Owens finding the net for the Shamrocks to help them into a four point lead at the break.

Tempo did rally in the second half, cutting the gap back to a single point at one stage and it looked as if the momentum may have swung the way of the Maguires when Teemore midfielder Eoin McManus was red carded midway through the half.

A youthful Teemore side though were always able to find a response when Tempo did get within touching distance and they were able to pick off a couple of crucial scores that took them to the victory.

Full forward Owens is also part of the Shamrocks management team and he explains that it was an important win for the young players at the club.

“It is 2014 since we last won a senior championship match and there is a lot of lads there who haven’t won a championship game so it is a great result for them and great experience for them. Hopefully now we can keep it going,” he said.

And Owens was pleased with the patience shown by the side to work scoring chances late in the game.

“We kept the ball well and frustrated them a lot and tried to drag them out of their defensive shell but they were a hard team to break down. Luckily though we have a few lads like Cian McManus, Niall Clarke and Damian Lee who are really good at driving forward and then we were able to keep the ball when it needed to be kept.

“It is maybe something new for Teemore to be playing the way we are playing but you have to play to your strengths and if you don’t have a big man in there there is no point in kicking it in.

“Ryan Maguire is good at winning ball but he needs it in space and Tempo covered all that space most of the time.”

Next up for the Shamrocks is a meeting with Ederney and Owens knows that they will be underdogs for the game.

“The other three teams left in it are all at the top of Division One so you know that you are playing the best in the county at this stage but we have nothing to lose. We are a youthful team with no fear and hopefully that win will bring them on. We know ourselves we are going to be up against it and everyone will be writing us off but that might work to our advantage too,” he added.

Teemore came into the game on the back of an unbeaten run in Division Two and they started confidently with Eoin McManus registering the first score of the day from a free after Owens was fouled.

And moments later the Shamrocks swooped for their first goal as Ryan Maguire rounded a Tempo defender before slotting the ball beyond Matthew Jackson in the Maguires’ goal.

The goal though seemed to wake Tempo up and they went on to enjoy a strong spell as they rattled off five points in a row to take the lead.

Aidan Breen landed a score from distance to get them off the mark and this was followed by a Eunan McCann point from play and Lorcan McStravick free.

Tiarnan Bogue, who gave the Teemore defence problems throughout, levelled things after good work by Breen and then Breen himself fired over when under pressure to put Tempo into a 0-05 to 1-01 lead.

Teemore though settled back to the task after this and they had the better of the closing period of the half, hitting 1-02 without reply to go in with a four point lead.

Ciaran Fitzpatrick lofted over a point to tie matters up before Owens bagged his side’s second goal. The full forward gathered a crossfield ball from Maguire and squeezed his shot to the net to make it 2-02 to 0-05.

Indeed, Owens was again in the thick of the action in added on time as he got a fist to a high ball that forced Jackson to turn the ball away for a 45 that Eoin McManus subsequently converted to leave it 2-03 to 0-05 at half time.

The gap was out to five early in the second half as Niall Clarke knocked over after a patient build up although Tempo replied with four points on the bounce to close back to within one.

Bogue accounted for three of these, including two from play and a mark while McStravick rattled over an terrific point from distance to make it 2-04 to 0-09.

When they looked in danger though Teemore were able to find a response and Eoin McManus drilled a lovely free kick over from the left before converting a further free to push the lead back out to three.

The red card though followed for McManus after he clashed with Aidan Breen and when Bogue then fisted over it left two in it with 46 minutes on the clock.

Again though Teemore found an answer with Oisin Murphy slotting over a well worked point before Cian McManus broke forward to fire over and make it a four point game.

The seesaw nature of the tie continued though and McStravick, Bogue and Ryan Ingram all fired over for Tempo to leave the gap at the minimum deep in injury time.

Teemore though kept the ball well and when the chance arrived Murphy sent it over the bar to wrap up a two point victory for the Shamrocks.