By: Mary Dunne
Tullamore Court Hotel Intermediate Football Championship Semi Final
St Brigid’s: 3-3
Ferbane: 0-10
For the second year hand running St Brigid’s booked their place in the Intermediate Football County Final when they came through a grueling affair that came right down to the final whistle on Friday night last in Tubber.
This was a real dogfight from the throw in. The hitting was hard and as the score line suggests it wasn’t a free flowing game at all, but it was certainly enjoyable to watch. There was certainly no love lost between the sides who went for it, in what was a real battle.
On one hand you had St Brigid’s who lorded a lot of possession in the second half, but just couldn’t score hitting nine of their fourteen wides in the second half and at all times while they held possession they left the gap open for Ferbane.
Twice in the second half, St Brigid’s despite the best efforts of their line to highlight it, they were pulled for a breach and each time Ferbane scored and in fact Ferbane who were the only side to come through he group campaign with 100% record will feel that they should have done better.
For St Brigid’s when it comes to a game, one thing that know how to do is battle and from the off they were in a battle. Ferbane who looked a lot fitter initially started extremely well and were 0-3 to no score ahead by the fourth minute and in reality the eventual winners were playing second fiddle.
But the more the half played on the more confident St Brigid’s became. That was partly down to the fact that Ferbane didn’t go for the jugular when they should have, but also because St Brigid’s play a very good tight game and when they hunted in packs Ferbane couldn’t cope.
Defensively St Brigid’s were exceptionally good. Their goalkeeper Liam Fox was excellent in goals and came to their aid on a few occasions, and with Cameron Egan, Ethan Hannon and Ben Kennedy dictating a lot of the moves at the back their ability to break the tackle and come up the field was very much a key aspect of the Croghan men’s game.
The scoring as suggest was few and far between and this is something that they will have to work on ahead of their final in two weeks’ time. It wasn’t that they had enough chances, but sometimes they hit a lot of the in hope rather than taking another step in and in the end they scored as many goals as points.
Ferbane hit the ground running in this game and with very early scores from Gavin Hand, Ronan Flynn and John Dunican they looked like they were going to run riot as St Brigid’s struggled to get to terms with the fast pace of the game.
St Brigid’s despite holding a lot of possession they just couldn’t get on the board but finally with twelve minutes on the clock they got a break.
Ethan Hannon started the move from defence and with a brilliant run he tore through Ferbane. Laying off to the flighty James Lynch he took on the defence and with a neat pass to Aaron McDermott he crashed the ball to net and with that the sides were deadlocked 0-3 to 1-0.
Alan Scally hit St Brigid’s in front with a free on the fourteen minute, but it wasn’t long until Ronan Flynn hit Ferbane back in front with a well take two pointer free, 0-5 to 1-1 with twenty three on clock.
Sean Briody who put a tremendous shift in for St Brigid’s throughout the hour and with a nice score he left the sides level again, but once again Ferbane took the lead with Ronan Flynn pointing from a free.
It looked like Ferbane who take the lead into the break, but with six minutes of injury time on the clock after a lengthy delay for an injury to Bernard Corcoran, St Brigid’s had one more move.
Alan Scally fielding brilliantly and with the overlapping Sean Briody on hand, he rattled the net to give St Brigid’s a two point lead 2-2 to 0-6 and a game that was certainly in the making pot.
It was St Brigid’s how hit the ground running on the resumption and with a brilliantly worked move between Ben Kennedy, Dan Molloy, Ronan Doyle and James Lynch, they really should have found the net, but Eoin Coughlan was on hand to save the day for Ferbane.
The third goal however did come on the 34th minute. It was a real opportunistic shot and probably more of one hit in hope. With the Ferbane defence sucked out and their goalie well off his line, Sean Briody hit in a long range ball that bounced the whole way into the get and suddenly St Brigid’s were 3-2 to 0-6 clear.
From there on St Brigid’s with one foot in the final, lived on their wits. They battled and battled but they just couldn’t score as wide after wide racked up and the door was left open for Ferbane to come back.
Ronan Flynn, hit over another free and with a follow up score from Ronan McGuire the gap was back to three, 3-2 to 0-8 with forty one played.
Ronan McGuire came very close to breaking their hearts ten minutes later when he found himself one and one with Liam Fox, but the St Brigid’ number one did extremely well to pull off the save.
Ferbane, however still kept going and with two more frees from Ronan Flynn, one separated the sides 3-2 to 0-10 with sixty one on the clock.
St Brigid’s needed to settle themselves and finally with sixty three on the clock James Lynch kicked over, to seal the win, as time ran out for Ferbane. The final scores reading 3-3 to 0-10.
The Scorers
St Brigid’s: Sean Briody 2-1, Aaron McDermott 1-0, Alan Scally 0-1, James Lynch 0-1.
Ferbane: Ronan Flynn 0-7 (0-4 Frees, 0-2 TPF), John Dunican 0-1, Gavin Egan 0-1, Ronan McGuire 0-1.
The Teams
St Brigid’s: Liam Fox; Ronan Swords, Cameron Egan, Odhran Briody; Ben Kennedy, Ronan Doyle, Ethan Hannon; Sean Briody, Dan Molloy; Evan Rigney, Alan Scally, Liam Cocoman (Capt.); Aaron McDermott, Cian Donohoe, James Lynch.
Subs: Thomas Mooney for Evan Rigney (45 mins), Dillon Donoghue for Ethan Hannon (inj. 57 mins).
Ferbane: Eoin Coughlan; David Heffernan, Mark Wren, Adam Reams; John Dunican, Jack Egan, Michael Spillane; David Kelly, Bernard Corcoran (Capt.); Lee Moore, Sean Flynn, Gavin Egan; Ronan Flynn, Rory Dunican, Ronan McGuire.
Subs: Conor Dunican for Michael Spillane (Half Time), Adam Egan for Gavin Egan (44 mins), Niall Flynn for Lee Moore (54 mins).
Referee: Adam Kinahan (Clodiagh Gaels).
By Offaly Secretary Sat 26th Sep
