Passage footballers withstand Glanmire fightback to take league title

Passage 1-11 (1-1-9) Glanmire 2-7 (2-0-7)

Passage were crowned Seandun AOS Security Division 1 Football League champions at Ballinlough on Thursday night.

They had to withstand a late Glanmire fightback to come out on top, with former Cork minor Harry Cogan keeping the game in the balance with two goals in the final few minutes. Overall Passage were the better side, with their full-back line of Niall O’Connor, Tomás Harrington and Darragh Driscoll key to their win.

Glanmire will rue missed chances as they hit more than 12 wides over the hour, some of them easy scoring chances and ones they would have expected to score. 

Passage opened the scoring after four minutes when Killian Murphy pointed, with David McCarthy replying at the other end.

Kieran Burke put Passage back in front, with his brother, Shane, stretching their lead to two. Shane was on target again as Passage led by 0-4 to 0-1 after 13 minutes.

Glanmire pulled a point back when David O’Brien burst out of defence to score. But Passage kept the scoreboard ticking over with James Kind adding another for them.

James Crowley pointed from a free for Glanmire, with Murphy replying at the other end.

With 21 minutes gone, Passage got the first goal of the tie. A long free in from Murphy broke to Kieran Burke and he slotted home, to make it 1-6 to 0-3.

O’Brien got his second, but Passage were in control on the scoreboard, with Darragh Murphy adding another point.

Kieran Kenneally got the final score of the half for Glanmire as they trailed by 1-7 to 0-5 at half-time.

Scores were few and far between in the second half with Murphy increasing Passage’s lead, before Jake O’Leary denied them a second goal.

Kieran Burke pulled a point back for Glanmire, before Shane Burke hit the only two-pointer of the tie.

With six minutes to go, Glanmire were back in contention when Cogan got the first of his goals, with Keith Crowe adding a point to make it 1-11 to 1-7.

In the last minute, Cogan found the back of the net again, but Passage denied them an equaliser to win the league for the first time since 2019.

Scorers for Passage: S Burke 1-4 (1 2pt), K Burke 1-1, K Murphy 0-4, J Kind, D Murphy 0-1 each.

Glanmire: H Cogan 2-0, J Crowley (f), D O’Brien 0-2 each, D McCarthy, K Kenneally, K Crowe 0-1 each.

PASSAGE: C Finnegan; N O’Connor, T Harrington, D Driscoll; T O’Neill, R Harrington, J O’Donoghue; J Kind, L Harrington; D Barrett, K Burke, S Burke; N White, D Murphy, K Murphy.

Subs: K Collins for N White (37), B Savage for D Murphy, R Carroll for J O’Donoghue (both 41), J Lake for D Barrett (47), F Williams for L Harrington (50), N McCarthy for N O’Connor (60 inj).

GLANMIRE: J O’Leary; R McSweeney, A Roche, S O’Callaghan; D O’Brien, B Kelleher, J Grandon; D O’Connor, J Leddy; T Hourihan, J Crowley, N Marron; K Kenneally, R McCarthy, D McCarthy.

Subs: C Condon for J Grandon (h-t), H Cogan for D O’Connor, M O’Callaghan for R McCarthy (both 37), T O’Donoghue for K Kenneally (53), K Crowe for D McCarthy (54).

Referee: Canice Walsh (Nemo Rangers).