Depleted Rearcross 'B' bow out of the Kevin Fogarty Tipperary Cup

A very depleted Rearcross ‘B’ team travelled to Templemore last Sunday morning to take on BT Harps ‘A’ in the last 16 of the Kevin Fogarty Tipperary Cup. BT harps opened the scoring early in the game when Dean Lawlor shifted the ball onto his right foot on the edge of the box and curled it into the bottom corner to get the hosts off the mark. Rea done their very best to keep things tight at the back with both Sean Hickey and Eamonn Devitt defending astutely to cut out several Harps chances. BT got their second of the day on the half hour mark when a Brian Mitchell corner found Jack Kennedy at the back post with the latter heading home from close range. Mitchell got his name on the scoresheet just a few minutes later with a good strike from just inside the box. Ryan Loughnane was introduced to the game in the 43rd minute and scored straight after with a looping header over the head of Brian Hammersley in the Rearcross goal to make it 4-0 to the home side at half time.

Harps kept pushing in the second half and got their 5th of the day in the 53rd minute as Rhys Loughnane rifled a shot into the roof of the net from a tight angle giving Brian Hammersley no chance. To their credit Rea kept pushing and were duly rewarded when a long-range free kick from Brian Hammersley fell to the feet of William Horrigan whose effort was saved by Lydon Fairbrother only for Colm Nolan to score from the rebound. Ryan Loughnane would go on to score his second header of the day to see BT Harps run out 6-1 winners. All in all, it was a disappointing result, however Rea gave it everything against a top Premier Division side despite the lack of numbers.

BT Harps ‘A’: L. Fairbrother, C. Russell, R. Loughnane, J. Kennedy, C. Ryan, D. Lawlor, S. Purcell, D. McEnroe, E. McBride, B. Mitchell, B. Stapleton (Capt)
Subs: C. Foy, R. Loughnane, W. Collier, J. Bourke

Rearcross ‘B’: Brian Hammersley, Paul Ryan, Eamonn Devitt (Capt), Sean Hickey, Colm Nolan, Gary O’Brien, Gavin Denihan, Colm Carey, Thomas Kennedy, William Horrigan

Referee: David Butler

Report by Brian Hammersley