Ballycumber 1-9 Shamrocks 1-6 - K/O Cup Final

[Lone Shark]

With a good proportion of neutral followers in Offaly having made the trip to Aughrim to see Rhode’s clash with Rathnew, it was a very small crowd of hardy club regulars that gathered in Tubber last Sunday to see this clash between local rivals Ballycumber and Shamrocks, and of the handful in attendance, the Ballycumber faithful will have been the happiest, having seen their side presented with the Matt Connor Cup.

Cold and breezy conditions prevailed, and if Shamrocks choose to carry out any post mortem study on this defeat, they will only have to look at the first half, where they had the assistance of that breeze and utterly failed to capitalise. They took 21 minutes to get on the scoreboard, and finished the half with a meagre two points, having kicked the ball wide eight times. Their full forward line was really struggling to win any of the deliveries that were played into them, and it was largely due to the fine work of Diarmuid Donoghue, Ger Egan and Declan Daly that their team had such a fine platform on which to build their successful performance.

With fifteen minutes elapsed, there was only one score on the board, a Ciarán Grennan point, but just as supporters were considering just how low the scoring might be, Grennan made his second contribution, and a vital one. He took a handpass from Brian Halligan on the run, and with his marker behind him, he found himself one on one with Kelly and made no mistake with a cool low finish.

A great left footed score from Rory Guinan and a Colm Quinn free followed soon after to leave Ballycumber 1-3 to no score up by the twenty minute mark, before Shamrocks finally began to make some inroads up front by way of running at the backline. They won and converted two frees, but even at four points down, with the elements to face in the second half, they looked like big outsiders. A Brian Halligan point two minutes into the half added an extra few degrees of gradient to their uphill task, but over the next twenty minutes they took control, with Neville Coughlan sweeping up from centre back stemming the flow of Ballycumber ball into the forwards. Tommy Coughlan charging forward got their third point, before Monaghan hit two more frees to put them within striking distance – and strike they did, in fine style. The younger Coughlan had only just been moved up to full forward, the latest move the quest to establish a foothold in that area of the field for Shamrocks, and with his first ball he hit a superb drive from 15 metres out across the goalie and into the top corner.

His side’s lead lasted a mere sixty seconds before Stephen Quinn levelled matters, but a Nigel Dunne free on seventeen pushed his team back in front with the endline in sight.

It wasn’t to be however. Ballycumber began to re-assert themselves over the closing ten minutes, and four points in succession from Colm Quinn, Fergal Daly, and Nigel Grennan twice were enough to put sufficient distance between them and a Shamrocks team that were sorely lacking the impact up front – the kind of impact that any one of the absent Leonard Mooney, Derek Molloy or Ronan Mooney might have given them. All that said, when one team has six scorers from play all over the field, and the other has only a wing back that manages the same feat, it’s hard to contest that Ballycumber were the more worthy recipients of a trophy named after the finest forward our county has ever produced.

Teams:

Ballycumber: Francis Boland; Diarmuid Donoghue, Ger Egan, Declan Daly; Sean Hackett, Karl Daly, Stephen Quinn (0-1); Colm Quinn (0-2, frees), Glen Halligan; Adrian Kelly, Rory Guinan (0-1), Fergal Daly (0-1); Nigel Grennan (0-2), Brian Halligan (0-1), Ciarán Grennan (1-1).

Subs: Peter Flynn for Declan Daly, Simon Casey for Ciarán Grennan

Shamrocks: Padraig Kelly; Conor Mooney, Stephen Delaney, Enda Minnock; Anthony Condron, Barry Mooney, Tommy Coughlan (1-1); Neville Coughlan, Brian Kearney; Johnny Dunican, Jimmy Conway, Darragh Minnock; Nigel Dunne (0-2, frees), Brian Monaghan (0-3, frees), Fergal Thornton.

Subs: Rory Kearney for Jimmy Conway, Shane Monaghan for Fergal Thornton



Referee: Mick Mahon

[ballymanabroad]

Great to win something after the efforts of the lads this year. 2 semi final appearences and now this win coupled with our underage success points to a great year for the club.