Junior ‘B’ Footballers in Semi Final
At Castlelyons last Sunday afternoon our Junior ‘B’ football team qualified for the semi final of the championship with an exciting 2 point win over Glenville. This game had everything, good scores, great passages of play and an amazing finish. We kicked a total of 12 wides during the game and it looked like that this erratic shooting was going to cost us at the end – but we pulled through. The first ten minutes of the game were scoreless though we had some good chances. After Glenville had their first white flag John O’Dowd levelled and a minute later Tomás Kearney put us ahead. The next three points came to Glenville before Michael Collins had our third score. Our half back line of team captain Padraig O’Brien, Mike Hogan and Gavin O’Flynn started very well though Podge was forced off with an ankle injury to be replaced by Daniel Dooley. It was 0-6 to 0-3 in Glenville’s favour and our deficit was 4 shortly after the break. When Glenville added their 8th point in the fourth minute of the half, we were 0-8 to 0-3 behind and it wasn’t looking good. Barry Johnson, Brian Murphy and Michael Collins and Colm and Alan O’Keeffe all came more and more into the game at this stage. A Kieran Manley point left us four behind. In the 10th minute Barry Johnson got a point to make it 0-8 to 0-5. Glenville were awarded a penalty at this stage. The ball hit the crossbar and was cleared upfield. Despite a few bad wides we were still in the game. Glenville made it a 4 pointer game before Kieran Manley left just 3 between the teams with 7 minutes left. A long ball in from Michael Collins was finished to the net by Daniel Dooley and we were level. We’d have been glad of the final whistle at that stage but there was more drama to come. Glenville went a point ahead 0-10 to 1-6. From Vinny’s kick out, James O’Sullivan got the ball, he passed to Alan O’Keeffe. Alan headed goalwards but was grounded – penalty. Down 1 point with only a minute and a half left – Colm O’Keeffe stepped up and bang, goal – we were 2 points up. There was still time to play and Glenville attacked. Alan, Batt and Barry cleared their lines twice and then the final whistle went. This was a great win for a team that had little enough football played in the last few weeks. Glenbower Rovers will be our semi final opponents.
Team & Scorers: V O’Keeffe, A Broderick, B O’Connell, Barry Murphy, P O’Brien (Capt), M Hogan, G O’Flynn, B Johnson (0-1), K Manley (0-2), J O’Dowd (0-1), M Collins (0-1), T Kearney (0-1), C O’Keeffe (1-0), A O’Keeffe, Brian Murphy.
Subs: D Dooley (1-0), J Campbell, M O’Connell.
