Offaly champions St Brigid's run riot as Timahoe bow out of Leinster

Timahoe’s 2026 AIB Leinster Club Junior Football Championship campaign has ended in Round 1 after they were hammered by Offaly side St Brigid’s Croghan in Laois Hire O’Moore Park on Friday night.

It was always going to be tough for Timahoe to compete in the provincial series, given that they didn’t actually win the Laois Junior Championship. Their motivation wouldn’t have been at a great level three weeks after losing to St Joseph’s in the Laois final.

Conditions were ideal for football with barely any wind blowing and the temperature that it has been for the last few evenings.

It was the Offaly champions who dominated the early proceedings in this one as they raced into a five-point lead with 13 minutes on the clock. In that time, Timahoe only managed one shot at goal and that went wide as they failed to get on the scoreboard until the 17th minute.

Four minutes passed before the first score arrived as Dan Molloy got St Brigid’s up and running. Ethan Hannon then fisted the ball between the posts to make it 0-2 to no score shortly after. Three more points followed through James Lynch, Sean Briody and a free from Molloy.

Timahoe finally got themselves on the board in fortuitous circumstances as a Colum Dunne free from outside the arc looked to be dropping harmlessly into the square, but Briody attempted to catch the ball in front of goalkeeper Liam Fox, and it ended up going in the net to put Timahoe back into the contest, having not really created much up to that point.

St Brigid’s were the ones dominating possession and probably should have been further ahead, but they kicked a goal chance wide as well as three other wides going for points. They did, however, get the own goal back before Timahoe managed to score after they scored three points in a row. A great run from Molloy set up Ben Kennedy to score, while Aaron McDermott and a third Molloy free put them back in front by five points again.

The half concluded with Timahoe getting their only point of the half as Dunne kicked a 45 after a shot from David Lalor was blocked. St Brigid’s held a deserved lead of 0-8 to 1-1 at half-time and truth be told, they should probably have been further ahead with the chances that they had in the first period.

Dunne started the second half the same way he had ended the first with a point, but Timahoe then went the next 22 minutes without registering a score. In that time, St Brigid’s scored 1-7 to run away with the contest. Two of those points came at the same time as Liam Cocoman slotted over a two-pointer. Colm Dundon then denied McDermott a goal when he cleared his shot off the line.

Timahoe were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Conor Whelehan was shown a black card with Molloy pointing the resulting free. The away side then got their only goal when Thomas Mooney played in Lynch, who smashed it past Eoin Culleton. Timahoe’s night got worse in the 43rd minute when Eoin Shortall was also shown a black card to leave Timahoe with 13 players. Cocoman and three more white flags from Kennedy saw St Brigid’s lead by 15 points with nine minutes plus added time still to play.

Substitute Seamus Ramsbottom and Colm Dundon scored a point each for Timahoe, but the game was well beyond them at that stage. Another St Brigid’s two-pointer sailed over, this time from Molloy. Timahoe did manage to get a second goal late on when Dundon set up Conor Fitzpatrick, but there was still time for three more points for St Brigid’s. McDermott, Thomas Mooney and Molloy scored a point each to see the Offaly champions win by 13 points in the end.

FINAL SCORE

St Brigid’s 1-20

Timahoe 2-4

SCORERS - St Brigid’s Croghan: Dan Molloy 0-7 (1tp, 0-3fs), James Lynch 1-1, Ben Kennedy 0-4, Liam Cocoman 0-3 (1tp), Aaron McDermott 0-2, Thomas Mooney, Sean Briody, Ethan Hannon 0-1 each. Timahoe: Sean Briody (own goal) and Conor Fitzpatrick 1-0 each, Colum Dunne 0-2 (0-1 45’), Colm Dundon and Seamus Ramsbottom 0-1 each.

TIMAHOE: Eoin Culleton; Rhys Kelly, Padraig Kelly, Colm Dundon; David Lalor, Dáire McDonald, Eoin Shortall; Colm Lalor, Damien O’Connor; Conor Whelehan, Conor Fitzpatrick, Enda Shortall; Colum Dunne, Pauric Ramsbottom, Joe O’Connor. Subs: PJ Daly for Kelly (HT), Liam McEvoy for Ramsbottom (44 mins), Seamus Ramsbottom for D Lalor (47 mins), Terence Delaney for Enda Shortall (56 mins)

ST BRIGID’S: Liam Fox; Ronan Swords, Cameron Egan, Odhran Brody; Ben Kennedy, Ronan Doyle, Ethan Hannon; Sean Briody, Dan Molloy; Evan Rigney, Alan Scully, Liam Cocoman; Aaron McDermott, Cian Donohue, James Lynch. Subs: Thomas Mooney for Donohue (HT), Bobby Troy for Rigney (50 mins), David Boland for O Briody and Rob Hoey for Hannon (Both 53 mins), Conor Davidson for Egan (55 mins)

Referee: Ryan Moran (Kildare)