Trio of first-half goals guide Tempo to win over Coa

Tempo 3-09 Coa 1-03

Three first-half goals for Tempo was enough for them to brush aside the challenge of Coa last Friday.

Goals from Caolan Corry, Darragh McCaffrey and Aidan Breen ensured the Maguires started Division Two with a win as they had little trouble against the O’Dwyers despite the two sides drawing in Coa earlier this season.

Tempo were aided by the return of county players Breen and Tiarnan Bogue.

“Aye it was nice to have them back in,” said joint Tempo manager Ryan Cassidy. “It was good to get that cohesion going in the team.

"The boys have done very well up to now without the county men, but you can’t beat having your full pick.”

Tempo made an ideal start to last weekend’s contest as just a few seconds after the throw-in, Tempo began their first attack and worked the ball into the forward line with Corry finding space and pulling the trigger to find the net.

Coa responded in the best possible way, however, a long ball into Ben Thompson at the other end of the pitch was caught by the full-forward and he turned his man and fired into the Tempo net.

Breen and Ben Warnock added points for Tempo with Caoilte Farry and Darragh Murphy splitting the posts for the O’Dwyers.

Tempo would edge further ahead as Darragh McCaffrey added a second goal when a good hand-passing move in the final third resulted in the forward despatching the ball into the top left-hand corner of the net.

A fortuitous third goal followed shortly after when Breen cut inside and went to point from an angle but it dropped and looped into the far top corner to put clear daylight between the teams.

Further scores from Ryan Breen and Tiarnan Bogue saw the home side take a 3-07 to 1-02 lead in at half-time.

It would be a low-scoring second-half between the teams as Murphy grabbed Coa’s only point of the half while there were just two more points for Tempo.

The Maguires face Aghadrumsee next and will be hoping for a similar outcome when they last met a few weeks ago, as they recorded a big win.

“It will be a difficult game,” added Cassidy. “Aghadrumsee is always a difficult place to go, and we know that they will be stiff opposition for us.”

Coa player/manager Gary Lynch said after the game: “We were extremely poor first-half. Very pedestrian and conceded three poor goals and made Tempo look good.

"Very tough to come back from that. We made a few tweaks in the second half and we were better but still not at the level required to compete.”