Four late goals secure U14 Premier 2 title for Bishopstown in brilliant final with Éire Óg

Bishopstown 7-6 Éire Óg 3-9

FOUR goals in a five-minute spell late in the second half was the difference between the sides as Bishopstown were crowned Rebel Óg U14 Premier 2 football champions at Ballinlough.

A superb game that saw both sides enjoy spells of dominance but in the end it was the goalscoring prowess of Dylan Murray in particular that was the difference. He scored three in the first half and added another in the second to finish with an impressive tally of 4-1.

Éire Óg took the lead from the throw-in when Jack Casey pointed, with Rian Searles adding a second from the restart as they were the quicker of the two sides to settle. It didn’t take the Town to get back on level terms with Max O’Shea opening the scoring for them and Dylan Murray added a second to level it after five minutes.

A minute later the Town took the lead when O’Shea set up Murray for the game’s opening goal, to make it 1-2 to 0-2. Credit to Éire Óg they stuck to their game plan, with Conor Murphy pulling a point back.

A free from Searles closed the gap and with 17 minutes gone, they were back on level terms when Sean Hogan scored. They had keeper, Thomas Mullins, to thank to stay level as he made a superb save to deny Murray a second goal with 22 minutes played.

Points from Hogan and Casey put them back on front, before Murray got his second goal of the half to make it 2-2 to 0-7 in the Town’s favour. Two minutes later he repeated the feat, with another unstoppable shot to complete his hat-trick.

Just before half-time, a free from Searles was picked up by Hogan to goal for Éire Óg to make it 3-2 to 1-7 at the break. Casey got Éire Óg’s first score after the restart, before Kyle Murphy and O’Shea replied for Bishopstown.

Enright added their third in the second half as the Town led by 3-5 to 1-8 after 41 minutes. A brilliant goal from Hogan had the sides level before Cuthbert split the posts for the Town.

Conor Murphy pointed for the Ovens side and with 23 minutes gone Hogan scored another goal, to make it 3-9 to 3-6.

But then we had that dramatic finish by the Town, with Murray getting their fourth goal, followed by two from James Murphy to make it 6-6 to 3-9. Cuthbert rounded off the scoring as the city side ran our deserving winners after a highly entertaining game.

Scorers for Bishopstown: D Murray 4-1, J Murphy 2-0, E Cuthbert 1-1 (0-1 f), M O’Shea 0-2, C Enright, K Murphy 0-1 each.

Éire Óg: S Hogan 3-2 (0-1 f), J Casey 0-3, R Searles (0-1 f), C Murphy 0-2 each.

BISHOPSTOWN: I Tobin; D Cotter, R Trindle, J O’Leary Burke; L Cuthbert, A O’Callaghan, P Barry; C Enright, M O’Shea; J Fitzgerald, J Murphy, I Lyons; K Murphy, D Murray, E Cuthbert.

ÉIRE ÓG: T Mullins; R O’Flynn, O O’Mahony, J Dillon; T O’Driscoll, J Clifford, C Sheehan; C Murphy, J Casey; P Moran, R Searles, P Moloney; D Crean, S Hogan, C Fitzgerald.

Subs: C McCarthy for C Fitzgerald, R McCarthy for T O’Driscoll, C Dineen for J Dillon (all 55).

Referee: Tom Manley (Inniscarra).