Glen Rovers hold off Douglas comeback to lift City Division U21 title

Glen Rovers 1-18 Douglas 0-18

GLEN Rovers were crowned Seandún U21 Hurling Champions after a hard-fought win over Douglas at Ballinlough.

Despite missing key players through injuries and suspensions, this was a great victory for the Blackpool side, who looked in big trouble in the opening 20 minutes as Douglas dominated despite playing into a strong wind.

Full credit to Cathal Brown the groundsman in Ballinlough who had the pitch in excellent condition, considering the recent bad weather.

The opening stages saw the sides level three times inside the opening five minutes. Points from Mark Howell, Stephen St Ledger and Aardash Sinnathambi saw Douglas take control of the opening stages.

Both centre-backs, Cork U20s Eoin Downey and Mark Howell were very prominent throughout the contest, especially in the opening stages. The game swung in the Glen's favour on 22 minutes when Rhys Dunne sent Eoin O’Leary away to give the Glen the lead for the first time, with a smashing goal.

The Glen tagged on six more points before the break with Downey (2), Dunne, two frees from O’Leary and one by goalkeeper Ben Heffernan giving them a 1-13 to 0-10 lead at the interval.

They made a blistering start to the second half with points from Nathan Goulding and Dunne inside the opening minute, to increase their lead to eight points. A big scramble in the Douglas square nearly produced a second goal for the Glen, but netminder Karl O’Neill managed to scramble the ball to safety.

Fionnán Barry began to drag Douglas back into the contest with a flurry of five unanswered points, four from placed balls as the Glen were conceding frees in the middle of the field. This brought the margin down to three points.

Entering the final stages, a point from substitute Ronan Dooley left two between the sides as Douglas began to get on top. Substitute Diarmuid Wall ended a 24-minute barren spell with a free.

Dunne extended the margin to four with his second point. Douglas rallied to save the game with points from Dooley and Kevin McSweeney, but the Glen defence held firm, where Gavin Marshall, Eoin Varian and Downey were prominent.

Heffernan pointed his third free to seal victory for the Blackpool side.

Scorers for Glen Rovers: E O’Leary 1-4 (0-3 f), B Heffernan 0-3 f, R Dunne, E Downey, D Coughlan 0-2 each, D Long (sl), D Wall (f), A Lordan, J Kennefick, N Goulding 0-1 each.

Douglas: F Barry 0-9 (0-6 f), S St Ledger, R Dooley 0-2 each, M Howell, A Sinnathambi, C O’Donovan, C Reddington, K McSweeney 0-1 each.

GLEN ROVERS: B Heffernan; G Marshall, E Varian, C McCarthy; F O’Driscoll, E Downey, D Coughlan; Z Lynch, C Martin; N Goulding, R Dunne, A Lordan; D Long, E O’Leary, J Kennefick.

Subs: C McGuire for Lordan, S Busteed for Goulding, D Wall for Kennefick (all 48), J O’Driscoll for Long (56).

DOUGLAS: K O’Neill; C McFadden, D Kelly, L Fogarty; M O’Callaghan, M Howell, K McSweeney; A Sinnathambi, D O’Callaghan; C O’Keeffe, S St Ledger, C O’Donovan; F Barry, F Sheehan, C Reddington.

Subs: D Reddington for M O’Callaghan, C Lucas for Sheehan, R Dooley for C Reddington (all 47), S O’Leary for D O’Callaghan (49), E Nash for O’Keeffe (53).

Referee: Mark Maher (St. Finbarr’s).