Ballygarvan 1-14

Carrigaline 0-15

JJ HURLEY REPORTS

A BRILLIANT injury-time effort from Evan O’Connor proved decisive as Ballygarvan narrowly defeated Carrigaline in the Procure.ie South East Junior A Football Final at Shanbally on Saturday.

Despite playing against a strong breeze, Carrigaline fought back into the contest to lead by a single point on 48 minutes.

Vaughan could have ended Carrigaline’s long wait for South East glory a few minutes later, but his punched effort came back off the crossbar, before Niall Dowd tied up the contest on 57 minutes with a free.

As both sides battled to find the decisive opening, a stunning two-pointer from man-of-the-match O’Connor sealed the win, as a late Vaughan free only registered a single point.

A relieved manager Liam Sheehy was certainly delighted to get over the line at the finish.

‘That was a battle, a ferocious contest. Look, we knew it was going to be a tough game,’ Sheehy said. ‘We both had a month to prepare for it, and we had heard some of the lads who hadn’t played senior for Carrigaline were available for it, and we knew they would be strong, starting like a house on fire.’

The explosive start came in the form of two early two-point scores, as Ian Sheerin and Keelan Daly had Carrigaline out in front after ten minutes.

However, Ballygarvan’s Ray O’Halloran, who kicked a total of 1-4 before being forced off injured in the second half, raised a green flag on 11 minutes to bring his side back into the contest.

Ballygarvan's Kevin Lyons surrounded by Carrigaline's Billy Pope, Ronan Kelleher and Cian Barry.

Taking full advantage of the breeze, Carrigaline held the advantage courtesy of points from Andrew Daly, Jack Kelly and Tim Cronin after 20 minutes.

Sensing the game drifting away, team captain O’Halloran fired over an inspirational point on 22 minutes. He subsequently added two more, as O’Connor and O’Dowd also raised white flags to leave the contest finely poised at 0-8 to 1-5 with three minutes to the interval.

The parity was short-lived, however, as Kieran Kavanagh sent over and Vaughan landed another two-pointer to give Carrigaline a three-point half-time advantage.

Making full use of the breeze, Ballygarvan were out in front by a single point on 37 minutes, with Halloran, O’Connor, Dylan O’Connor and O’Dowd all on target. Vaughan tied up the contest on 38 minutes, but Dylan O’Connor restored Ballygarvan’s advantage just 60 seconds later.

Ballygarvan then failed to score for the next 17 minutes, as Carrigaline hit three on the bounce to lead 0-15 to 1-11 with only 12 minutes remaining, but Ballygarvan again drew level thanks to O’Dowd’s free on 57 minutes.

As both sides pressed for victory, it was O’Connor’s audacious two-point kick that secured the Pa Joe Cronin Trophy. Next up is a meeting with the Avondhu champions, Charleville on Sunday.

Scorers 

Ballygarvan: R O’Halloran 1-4; E O’Connor 0-4 (1 2pt); D O’Connor (2ptf), N O’Dowd 0-3 each.

Carrigaline: I Sheerin 0-4 (1 2pt); T Vaughan (1 2ptf), T Cronin 0-3 each; K Daly (2ptf), J Kelly (2pt) 0-2 each, A Doherty, K Kavanagh 0-1 each.

Ballygarvan: C Fitzgerald; P Ryan, A Dunne, Z Davidson; S Fenton, S O’Donovan, D O’Mahony; P O’Halloran, D O’Connor; E O’Connor, M O’Mahony, C O’Regan; D Mackey, R O’Halloran, N Dowd.

Subs: C Downey for R O’Halloran (43, inj), S Brady for P O’Halloran (54), C O’Leary for O’Regan (60).

Carrigaline: K Daly; A Doherty, L Ahern, P Laverty; B Murphy, C Barry, J Kelly; K Kavanagh, I Sheerin; D Sutton, J McGrath, K McNulty; T Vaughan, B Pope, T Cronin.

Subs: D Greene for Sutton (ht), R Kelleher for Doherty (49), S Horan for Vaughan (58).

Referee: K O’Sullivan (Valley Rovers).