Matthew Wade was the hero in Kilmore this afternoon with 2 great penalty saves to earn loughshinny the victory in a battle between 2 unbeaten good sides today. Loughshinny travelled to St John's Vianney with a 100% win record and left with the same statistic with a hard fought win. Game started slow enough with the referee taking centre stage in blowing up for a ridiculous number of soft fouls for both teams. Game was very stop start and it only sprung to life when a corner for Vianney ended up with the referee pointing to the spot as Callum Lynch was adjudged to have fouled the Vianney striker. It looked very soft but nevertheless the penalty was awarded. Matthew Wade went down low to his left and saved well and pushed the ball out wide to the delight of Loughshinny. Soon after Loughshinny had an attack and a ball into the feet of Evan Spencer was flicked over the back line of Vianney and Conor O'Neill ran onto it a fired it in but the referee's whistle blew and the goal was chalked off. O'Neill was clearly onside but it was ruled out. HT 0-0. 2nd half begun with Loughshinny coming more into the ascendancy and had a chance when a Callum Lynch free kick was delivered onto the penalty spot and Rory O'Connor wasn't expecting the ball to beat 2 defenders that looked like getting something onto the delivery but it hit in the shin and bobbled harmlessly into the Vianney keepers arms. He didn't make the same mistake a few minutes later when this time a free kick delivered from Cian Ensor resulted in the ball being controlled by O'Connor and fired home with the outside of his boot to put the visitors 1 up. O'Connor then had an effort saved from the edge of the area but he tweaked his hamstring when hitting the ball and had to be replaced by Mark Delves. Loughshinny defended brilliantly Ryan Fagan putting in some strong tackles on the right side of the defence and Josh Hughes on the other side with Lynch and Cian Archbold winning everything that fell in their area. One long ball into the area caused a bit of havoc and ended up with Wade unbending the Vianney striker. The striker stepped up after missing the penalty in the first half and scored but the referee decided a Vianney player had encroached the area and showed him a yellow card and ordered the penalty to be retaken. The striker to his credit after added pressure hit the penalty well but Wade with no right to save it managed to get up to the top corner and deny Vianney an equaliser with a magnificent save. Loughshinny should have doubled the lead when Loughshinny broke from a Vianney corner and Ensor nodded it past the keeper 30 yards out and ran through with a heavy touch that forced the angle tighter and instead of using his right foot opted to use the outside of his left but found the side netting. Again Lougshinny withstood everything Vianney had to offer and shut the door to keep the first clean sheet of the campaign and register another win. Next up a Leinster Junior Shield match against DCU at home next Sunday.
