Champs out as Bors lay down marker
There will be a new name at the top of this year's Under 21 'B' football championship as Bornacoola toppled champions Drumkeerin off their throne in an exciting tie played in Drumreilly.
U-21 'B' CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER FINAL
BORNACOOLA 1-5
DRUMKEERIN 0-7
Drumkeerin have been a mainstay of the latter stages of 13 a-side code over the last eight years but a strong Bornacoola side prevailed on Saturday against their opponents who had influential centre back Fintan Harvey sent off half way through the second period.
Once again the timing of the Under 21 championship will have to be called into question with Saturday's fixture being met with a cocktail of wind, rain and soft under-foot conditions. No doubt it is a headache for the fixtures committee to make space for the competition but the fact that year after year, it is somewhat shoe-horned at the calendar does no justice to the players taking part.
Both sides came into the game short of what would be perceived as first choice players. For Bornacoola, the O'Connor brothers were notable absentees while Drumkeerin were without the injured duo of Eddie McTiernan and James McPartland.
Playing against the breeze the Bors started brightly. Fergal Howard opened the scoring with a well taken free before doubling the lead with another good score from play.
Battling against the elements as much as each other, both sides were struggling to put together any periods of cohesive play. Indeed Drumkeerin were finding it hard to gain any foothold in proceedings but they did manage to get themselves on the score sheet when Daragh Flynn pointed at the quarter hour mark.
The sides then came level for the first time when Flynn doubled his tally five minutes later. The Bors took the lead once again when Alan Croghan turned to hit a nice score however the tit for tat nature of the game was to continue when Drumkeerin drew level with a super solo effort from Patrick McPartland.
The men in maroon then took the lead 25 minutes in, Thomas Lavin latching onto a long ball to coolly slot over the bar. This cushion was short lived with Bornacoola hitting a devastating blow on the stroke of half-time.
Damien Moran reacted quickest to a mistake in the Drumkeerin back line and although his initial effort was well saved by Barry McPadden, Moran made no mistake by crashing the follow up home to give Bornacoola a two point lead at the break.
The second half started with Drumkeerin replacing Brendan McNama with Ciaran Clancy while lack of numbers on the Bornacoola bench meant that the injured Alan Croghan had to go between the sticks with keeper Damien McGowan moving to corner forward.
The changes were having an impact as Drumkeerin began to dominate the majority of play but wayward shooting and poor decision making meant that it wasn’t having the desired effect on the scoreboard.
On top of this when Drumkeerin did manage to cut the deficit through the boot of Patrick Byrne on two occasions, Bornacoola hit straight back with points of their own, most notably from Declan Shanley who hit the best score of the game way out with a sideline ball.
When Fintan Harvey was sent off for a second bookable offence with 15 minutes to go, it appeared as if it wasn’t going to be Drumkeerin’s day. Nevertheless with only ten minutes left a tight finish was ensured when McPartland benefited from a neat one-two to finally bring Drumkeerin level with their south Leitrim counterparts.
Yet with the game in the melting pot, the excellent Howard was once again on the mark to send the Bors through and condemn Drumkeerin to an early end to their season.
Bornacoola
Damien McGowan; Mervyn Howard, Conor McCauley; Darren McGushin, Paul Hackett, David Mulligan; Fergal Howard (0-3), Damien Moran (1-0); Harry Comisky, Ollie Vaughan, Alan Croghan (0-1); Sean McKeon, Declan Shanley (0-1).
Drumkeerin
Barry McPadden; Brendan McNama (Ciaran Clancy, HT), Calvin O’Donnell; Dean McVeigh, Fintan Harvey, Jason Byrne; Aidan Dolan, John Gallagher; Thomas Davitt, Patrick Byrne(0-2), Patrick McPartland (0-2); Daragh Flynn (0-2), Thomas Lavin (0-1).
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
