SETU Carlow cruise through opening round of Trench Cup

Trench Cup Group A Rd 1 

SETU Carlow 5-20 

South West College 2-15 

SETU Carlow ran out comfortable winners of this first round Trench Cup against their northern visitors on Tuesday at their own campus.

It was a tough evening for the County Tyrone college who had travelled for over three hours to get to the ground. Even then the game was delayed by fifteen minutes due to their late arrival.

One can only imagine what time the young men would have got home at considering their time of departure from Carlow. It begs the question as to why the competition does not consist of group games in regional settings where travel issues don’t raise themselves as they did here.

As it was, this was not Carlow’s problem. They went on to do a professional job and were impressive against a side who must surely have left part of their energy on the bus.

Thanks to goals from Sam Ryan, Ben Conry, Oisin McGraynor and Ethan Mountaine, the home side led 4-8 to 2-4 at the interval. Matty Howe and Paudie Dillion raised green flags for the Tyrone college.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the opening period. Carlow had a handful of punched points with their fifth and final three-pointer coming from Ross Harris in the final quarter.

South West’s best player, Liam Og Mossey was unfortunate not to convert a penalty when Carlow keeper, Conor Browne, got is legs in the way of what had been a well-struck shot. In the end, the visitors hinted that they were made of sterner stuff when scoring the final three points of the game. It was too little, too late however.

SCORERS SETU Carlow: R Harris 1-5, S Ryan 1-4 (0-2fs), O McGraynor 1-4 (1-2p), S Savage 0-4, E Mountaine and B Conry 1-0 each, C Kehoe, K Swayne, C Deering, C McGraynor, G Thompson 0-1 each.

South West College: L Og Morrissey 0-9 (1-2p 1-2pf), P Dillion 1-2, M Howe 1-0, J Law, P McDonald, J Edgar, R McGurren 0-1 each.

SETU CARLOW: Conor Browne; Brendan McDonald, Ethan Mountaine, Mark Whelehan; Eoin Slattery, Kevin Swayne, Cian Deering; Cathal Kehoe, Ross Harris; Cormac McGraynor, Oisin McGraynor, Ben Conry; Gavin Thompson, Sam Ryan, Sam Savage.

Subs: Eoin Lowry for Thompson (ht), Daniel Wyer for Slattery (ht), Sean Kennedy for Whelehan (45m), Padraic Deering for Swayne (48m), Cormac Mannion for C McGraynor (49m).

SOUTH WEST COLLEGE: Nathan Hunter; Malachy McGurren, Dara Cathcart, Patrick McWilliams; Ben Warnock, Paidi Drumm, Jack Law; John Edgar, Conor Corcoran; Pearse McDonald, Liam Og Mossey, Tiarnan McCusker; Matty Howe, Tiernan McKenna, Paudie Dillon.

Subs: Aidan Duffy for Corcoran (ht), Cormac Cunningham for Hunter (ht), Matthew Eastwood for McCusker (40m), Ryan McGurren for McDonald (40m), Daire Treacy for Howe (46m).

Referee: Larry Murphy (Setanta).