Owenmore Gaels 3-10 Tubbercurry 1-8
The U-16 lads clinched the clubs first title of the year on Wednesday evening with an impressive win over Tubbercurry at Connolly Park.
Tubber scored the first point of the game, a fine score after a darting run from their centre forward. We responded with Stephen Fallons first point of the game, which he quickly followed up with his second, a lovely score of his left this time, set up by team captain Rolland Anderson. Our dominance continued when Aaron Walsh raised a green flag, assisted by Darragh Mahon and set up by a raid forward from Tony Fox. Tubber got a score but it was only a brief resistance. We hit our best patch of the game, Fallon pointing a free from range out on the left. John Mahon, who was beginning to take over around the centre of the field, pointed after a one two with Anderson. Fallon split the sticks again before Daragh Mahon hit a major following in on a John Mahon shot after a surging run through the Tubber defence. Walsh tapped one over after a flowing move, followed by another from John Mahon to complete the purple patch of 8 points without reply. This left us 2-7 to 0-2 points up at half time and in a very strong position. Our performance was built on solid defending, with Fox particularly effective in snuffing out any danger with some wonderful reading of the game.
The second half saw one change on the Gaels team with Derek Lynch replacing Ross Trill who had picked up a knock. Credit to Tubber they came out fighting in the second half. They pointed early on and dominated exchanges. We didn’t score for the first 10 minutes of the half as Tubber scored a further 1-2 to close the gap to just 4 points. If it wasn’t for the heroics of James Duffy, a rock at full-back, and Diarmuid O’Grady in the goals we could have been in big trouble. However a spectacular diving save from O’Grady to push a certain goal over the bar seemed to wake us up to the task at hand. Both teams exchanged scores, Fallon with a free before Roan Connelly got forward from wing back to swing over a beautiful score. Tubber responded with a free before we struck a critical blow. An excellent move down the right orchestrated by the busy Oisin Geraghty ended with Walsh bearing down on goal again. The keeper made a great save to push a goalbound shot onto the crossbar but Walsh reacted brilliantly to thump the ball to the back of the net for the games decisive score. There was still time for Fox to tear upfield from corner back to whack over the score his outstanding play deserved to complete the scoring for the day. The ref blew the final whistle to confirm Owenmore Gaels as division 1 shield winners.
Best on the day for the Gaels were Duffy and Fox at the back, with Fallon and Walsh the outstanding players in the scoring department. Oisin Geraghty put in an energetic workmanlike performance, especially to get us back in the game when under the cosh in the second half. Man of the match Tony Fox.
To win the shield has been a good achievement after not performing to our potential in the group stages. After finishing bottom of the group we played away in the quarters to the group 2 winners Eastern Harps. This was the turning point for us as we played excellently and were very unlucky to lose the game to the eventual division 1 winners. We followed that up with an impressive win away at Tourlestrane in the semi’s where we played some fantastic football.
We now look forward to the A championship in July. There is no doubt that with correct application and some hard training this team can make a serious impression on that competition.
Team: Diarmuid O’Grady, Calum Tonry (Evan Willis), James Duffy (Diarmuid Harte), Tony Fox (0-1), Jamie Callaghan (Byron Doherty), Jack Foley, Roan Connelly (0-1), John Mahon (0-2), Ross Trill (Derek Lynch), Rolland Anderson, Stephen Fallon (0-5, 3F), Oisin Geraghty, Daragh Mahon (1-0) (Vincent Harte), Kevin Healy, Aaron Walsh (2-1) Subs: Jordan McGuinn-Finn, Martin Weir