Carrigaline dominant in SE GAA U21 A football final as they beat Valley Rovers by six points

Carrigaline  2-12 

Valley Rovers  2-6

CARRIGALINE captured their fourth South East U21 A Football Championship title in a row and their sixth in the past 10 years when they defeated great U21 rivals Valley Rovers 2-12 to 2-6 in the final which was played in Shanbally.

This game went Carrigaline’s way from the very start and were rarely troubled by the Innishannon based side who found it difficult to put scores on the board, especially in the first half.

Carrigaline’s Nathan O’Keeffe pointed in the first minute followed by a second from Kevin O’Reilly in the fourth as Carrigaline were pressing forward and slowly building their way up the field with some excellent passing moves.

By the 9th minute Carrigaline had scored two goals to add to their tally from Eoghan Kirwan and Kevin O’Reilly in the space of two minutes as they found themselves 2-02 up with Valleys yet to register a score.

Valleys first point of the game came in the 15th minute from Cian Crowley but could only add a further two points from Adam Kenneally and Jonathon Murphy as Carrigaline raised another four white flags to leave the holders 2-06 to 0-03 to the good at half time.

Valleys were now playing with the wind but facing a strong setting sun in the second half and added a point from Crowley in the 35th minute, but four additional points from Carrigaline’s O’Reilly and Ronan Kelleher stretched their lead to 11 points halfway through the second half as Carrigaline were well in control and hardly hitting second gear.

However, Valleys started to come back into the game and found the back of the net in the 49th minute when Cian Crowley scored from close range to cut Carrigaline’s lead, and although Carrigaline’s O’Reilly and Valley’s Ciaran McCarthy exchanged points the holders were never really under any pressure.

Valley Rovers substitute Evan O’Shea managed to add another goal in the 58th minute to cut the deficit to just six points, but it was too little too late as Carrigaline ran out comfortable winners.

Scorers for Carrigaline: Kevin O’Reilly 1-06 (3 frees 2 Marks); Eoghan Kirwan 1-0; Nathan O’Keeffe 0-3; Ronan Kelleher 0-02; Tim Cronin 0-1.

Valley Rovers: Cian Crowley 1-02; Evan O’Shea 1-00; Ciaran McCarthy 0-02; Adam Kenneally 0-01; Jonathon Murphy 0-01 

Carrigaline: Chris Laverty, Chris O’Herlihy, Ross Kenneally, Callum Barrett, Finn O’Connell, Dara King, Patrick Mellett, Nathan O’Keeffe (Liam Ahern (57), Danny Kelly, Rhys McCarthy, Tim Cronin (Michael Cohalan 50), Eoghan Cronin, Kevin O’Reilly, Ronan Kelleher 

Valley Rovers: Eoin O’Sullivan, Ciaran O’Shea, Cathal O’Sullivan,(Brian McCarthy 54), Cormac Kilduff, Brian McCarthy, (Cian Johnson 23), Jonathon Kenneally, Cian O’Keeffe, Adam Kenneally, Darragh O’Shea, Jonathon Murphy, Aaron O’Leary, Cian Crowley, Ciaran McCarthy, Adam Murphy (Evan O’Shea 54) 

Referee: Brian Coniry (Crosshaven).