Portarlington's late surge benefits as The Heath fade in final quarter

Laois Shopping Centre ACFL Division 2 

Portarlington 1-16 

The Heath 1-9 

IN A dress rehearsal for the first round of the senior championship, it was Portarlington that came out on top by seven-points on The Heath on Sunday afternoon.

Sean Michael Corcoran was the match winner for Port as he was very impressive throughout and finished with nine points after kicking two brilliant two pointers one right on the final whistle.

As for The Heath, they will have plenty of positives as they played some good football for the first 45 minutes, but they faded out of the game and didn't score in the last 16 minutes.

It was the home side that went into the lead with a point early on from Sean Kirby, but Portarlington responded with five points including a two pointer from Curtis Lyons with the other scores coming from Ben McCann, Sean Moran and Sean Michael Corcoran.

Paddy Fitzpatrick and Darragh Slevin both traded points to leave Port in control 0-6 to 0-2 with 22 minutes on the clock.

The Heath came roaring back and finished the half the stronger, Sean Kirby landed a two pointer along with Brian Ging adding a point.

The home side then grabbed a goal from Kirby to put his side in the lead. Conor Booth finished the half with a free with The Heath in control at half time 1-6 to 0-6.

The Heath opened up the second half with a point from Denis Browne to stretch the lead out to four points.

Sean Michael Corcoran kept Portarlington ticking over with another point. The victors were then dealt a blow as sub-Stephen McKeown was shown a black card for pulling down Neil Keane off the ball.

However, The Heath failed to capitalise on having the extra man. Jake Rathcliffe then got on the scoresheet, and it was looking good for The Heath.

The away side then got a goal against the run of play finished superbly by Jordan Fitzpatrick which sparked his side to kick into gear.

Conor Booth responded for The Heath in the 44th minute and incredibly it was to be their last score of the game.

The Heath nearly got a second goal through Brian Ging, but it was brilliantly saved by Evan Grattan in the Port goals.

Portarlington then took over the game with Sean Michael Corcoran coming to the fore to win the game for Portarlington.

Darragh Slevin and Michael Corcoran got further points to draw the sides level with Portarlington now having all of the momentum.

Corcoran then added his first two pointer free from a good distance out and now the county champions were moving the ball much quicker which proved successful.

Portarlington finished with strongly with another free from Michael Corcoran and Darragh Slevin put them five points up.

The Heath went in search of goals and Brian Ging was so unlucky to see his brilliant effort hit against the crossbar and was cleared.

Michael Corcoran capped off a brilliant individual performance with another two pointer free as Portarlington claimed another two points.

SCORERS:

Portarlington: Sean Michael Corcoran 0-9 (2tpfs, 0-1f), Jordan Fitzpatrick 1-0, Darragh Slevin and Curtis Lyons(1tp) 0-2 each, Ben McCann, Sean Moran and Lucas Coleman 0-1 each.

The Heath: Sean Kirby 1-3 (1tp), Conor Booth 0-2 (0-2fs), Paddy Fitzpatrick, Brian Ging, Denis Browne and Jake Rathcliffe 0-1 each.

PORTARLINGTON: Evan Grattan; Conor Moran, Tom Corcoran, Jack Murphy; Curtis Lyons, Cathal Bennett, Matthew O'Sullivan; Darragh Slevin, Sean Michael Ward; Hugh Connolly, Sean Michael Corcoran, Corey Lyons; Ben McCann, Hugo Emerson, Sean Moran.

Subs: Jason Moore for Ward (ht), Stephen McKeown for Lyons (ht), Jordan Fitzpatrick for McCann (ht), Lucas Coleman for Fitzpatrick (49m).

THE HEATH: James Phelan; Niall Kirby, Harry Browne, Alan Whelan; PJ Larkin, Neil Keane, James Doyle; John MacNamara, Jimmy Nerney; Denis Browne, Sean Kirby, Dan Booth; Paddy Fitzpatrick, Brian Ging, Dylan Keyes.

Subs: Conor Booth for Fitzpatrick (20m), Jake Rathcliffe for Keyes (29m), Aaron Thornton for D. Booth (47m).

Referee: Brendan Hickey