Our junior team beat Ardagh in a pulsating county semi-final on a scoreline of 1.18 to 2.13. At half time, we were down by 4 points but observers at the game would say we should have been down by far more.

Ardagh were looking to secure their first county final appearance and started with great purpose, cutting our defence wide open on many occassions. They led 1.8 to 0.7 at half time but should have had the game wrapped up by then and only had themselves to blame due to wasteful kicking. They also found our goalkeeper Jamie McNicholas in excellent form, making two outstanding point blank saves, denying Ardagh the nescessary scores to put the game out of our reach. He also contributed 6 points (3 x 2 pointes) from frees to our scoreline.

In the second half, Liam Smyth was introduced to midfield and his efforts spurred on the rest of the team. We attacked with purpose and the scores started coming. Conor Mallee finished off a fine move with a goal and suddenly we were back in the game just a point behind. Thomas Keegan scored and we were level and we then went ahead with a fine point by Eoghan Lavin. However, former Mayo player, James Carr was having a fine game and he finished off a move with a goal to restore Ardagh’s advantage to 3 points.

Jamie McNicholas started our comeback with another 2 pointer and these were followed up by 1 pointers from Conor Mallee, Jack Niland and Fionnan Burke. However despite these scores, Ardagh matched us all the way and after 55 minutes the scores were level at 2.12 to 1.15.

Extra time looked likely but up stepped Jack Niland with another fine point followed by another from Fionnan Burke. But there was drama right at the end with James Carr finishing off a fine move, scoring a goal which would have won the game for Ardagh only for it to be cancelled out by the referee for an Ardagh breach in defence.

TEAM
Jamie McNicholas, Mattie Cummins, Jack Mahon, Darragh McGovern, Jack Niland, Liam Kelly, Evan Cosgrove, Paul Kelly, Stephen McDonnell, Oisin Mulderrig, Conor Mallee, Brian Gallagher, Fionnan Burke, Jordan Henry, Thomas Keegan

SUBSTITUTES USED
Eoghan Lavin, Liam Smyth, Liam Lydon