Roche Emmets 2-10 Kilkerley Emmets/Naomh Malachi 1-9

Roche recovered from four points down early in the second half to land bragging rights in this local derby at Páirc de Róiste on Monday night.

Trailing 1-7 to 1-3 after Kilkerley/Malachi’s drove low to the net in their first attack following the break, Roche dug deep with Seán Connolly, Matthew McArdle and DD Reilly the driving forces.

There were no fewer than seven yellow cards brandished across the hour, five of them going to Kilkerley/Malachi’s in what was a brutally physical encounter, with Reilly on the brunt end of several poor challenges.

But he often picked himself up to knock over the resulting frees – indeed, his three first half notches from placed balls kept Roche in it along with Eoin Maguire’s early goal, which deceived the visiting custodian.

The boys in blue were otherwise poor in the first half and had it not been for composed play by Oisín Nash, they may have trailed by more than 0-7 to 1-3 at the interval.

And things got worse when the Roche goalkeeper was left with no chance in the early stages of the second half. However, a break by the outstanding Luca Craig-Haye earned the hosts a penalty which Maguire converted and that served as the spark the winners required.

Powerhouse midfielder Seán Connolly knocked over a beauty, with Tomiwa Osho and Andrew McKay (twice) doing likewise, as Roche began to flex their muscles – Reilly remaining deadly accurate from placed kicks.

A late black card for Nash saw the victors finish with 14 players and stand-in No1 Maguire had to watch a last gasp drive rattle the crossbar. It was too little too late for the combination, however.

Roche: Oisín Nash; James Loughran, Finn Conlon, Conor Callan; Luca Craig-Haye, Matthew McArdle, Taylor Ward; Seán Connolly (0-1), Ryan Rice-Martin; Tomiwa Osho (0-1), Andrew McKay (0-2), Luke O’Connell (0-1); DD Reilly (0-5, frees), Eoin Maguire (2-0, one penalty), James Corcoran

Sub: Josh McGuinness for Loughran

Referee: Jonathan Conlon (O’Connell’s)