Glanmire strike late to deny Naomh Abán and lift intermediate title at last
Members of the winning Glanmire team race onto the pitch at the final whistle in MTU. Picture: David Creedon
THE heartbreak is finally over for Glanmire as they won the Ladies Football Intermediate Football Championship at MTU.
Having lost the last three finals in a row they finally came out on top, thanks to two late points from Riona Crowley. As the game headed into injury time, it looked as if Naomh Abán were going to hang on for a one-point win but Crowley hit over the equaliser from a free. From the restart, Glanmire regained possession and Crowley secured the victory.
Huge credit is due to Glanmire having come from three points down at half-time to level it, just three minutes into the second half.
They then lost Clodagh O’Donovan to a yellow card and in that time Lydia McDonagh scored a great goal for Naomh Abán, but Glanmire never panicked, and with those late points they were crowned champions.
Naomh Abán took the lead two minutes in when Colleen Ni Fhaoláin raised the first white flag in the first minute. It took until the eighth minute for the second score to arrive with Orlaith Roche equalising for Glanmire.
Roisin Corkery put Naomh Abán back in front and two frees from Lydia McDonagh had them 0-4 to 0-1 up with 12 minutes gone. Aishling McAllen pulled a score back for Glanmire from a free and a second from Roche made it a one-point game with 15 minutes played.
Grainne Lucey capitalised on a great run by Amy McDonagh to increase Naomh Aban’s lead when she split the posts. Eimear Murphy increased their lead further before both McAllen and Ni Fhaoláin hit the post for their respective sides.
And it seemed that hitting the post became a thing as Roisin Corkery then did the same for Naomh Aban before McAllen had another shot come back off the crossbar
Late on Lauren Hayes made a great save from Roche to see her side lead 0-6 to 0-3 at half-time.
Niamh McAllen, Roche, and Ally McCarthy had Glanmire back on level terms after 33 minutes as they pushed up and put massive pressure on the Naomh Aban defence.
A minute later O’Donovan was sin-binned and Naomh Aban capitalised when McDonagh scored a magnificent solo goal. But to the credit of Glanmire that was the only score they conceded during the 10 minutes they were down to 14.
McAllen pulled a point back for Glanmire to make it 1-6 to 0-7 before they had their keeper to thank for keeping them in contention. Ava Carey made two saves, in a matter of minutes, both from Anne Maher to deny her two goals.
Roche and Lydia McDonagh pointed for their respective sides to make it 1-7 to 0-8 with time nearly up.
McAllen raised a white flag before Crowley equalised and it looked like it was going to take extra time to separate them. But Crowley had other ideas and the pain of the last three years was forgotten.
O Roche 0-4, N McAllen 0-3 (0-2 f), R Crowley 0-2 (0-1 f), A McCallen (f), Ally McCarthy 0-1 each.
L McDonagh 1-3 (0-2 f), C Ni Fhaoláin, R Corkery, G Lucey, E Murphy 0-1 each.
A Carey; C Murphy, E Dillon, G Cashman; C O’Donovan, E Twomey, A Fitzgerald; A O’Mahony, E Murphy; Ally McCarthy, N McAllen, Ava McCarthy; E Twomey, O Roche, A McAllen.
N Tracey for G Cashman (h-t), M Dullea for A McAllen (37), M Barry for E Dillon (51), R Crowley for Ava McCarthy (53).
L Hayes; M Twohig, U Twohig, M Dineen; E Kelly, A Creedon, C Murphy; A McDonagh, G Lucey; R Corkery, E Murphy, A Maher; G Murphy, L McDonagh, C Ni Fhaolain.
J Kelly for A Maher (49).
Conor McCarthy (Roscarbery).
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