Ballincollig ride fortune and wides to deny St Finbarr's fightback in P1 U16 football semi-final
Eanna Lynch, Ballincollig, gets away from Eli McKeown, St Finbarr's during the Rebel Og Under 16 Premier 1 Football Championship semi final at Caherlag. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Far from fluent, far from Ballincollig’s best. But in knockout football, all that matters is the line that separates winners from the beaten.
Ballincollig, ragged for long spells, leaned on the heft of Joe Miskella and the nerve of Fionn Lordan to escape Caherlag on Monday night with a single point to spare over St Finbarr’s, and a place in the Premier 1 U16 Football Championship final – mirroring their hurling triumph over the same opposition only seven days earlier.
They will know they got away with one.
For St Finbarr’s, the defeat stings all the more because it was so nearly the reverse. They had the early command, they had the second-half openings, and they had, in the last kick of the game, a penalty to cut it to one and a chance to force extra-time.
Instead, the whistle followed instantly after Liam O’Regan’s cool finish, and the Barrs were left with nothing but disbelief.
The game’s turning hinge came just before the final quarter. The Barrs were four to the good, Alex O’Herlihy alive and dangerous, when Dylan McCarthy flung himself to save his goalbound strike in the 36th minute. The rebound was hacked clear by Cork U16 Éanna Lynch and with it went the chance to stretch six clear.
Within two minutes, it turned. Lordan’s point shot was superbly saved by Kyle Dee but not gathered; Jack Costello pounced, palming to the net. Moments later Lordan kicked over a booming two-point free and suddenly, shockingly, Ballincollig were ahead.
It was a blow that winded the Barrs more than the scoreboard suggested. Their purple patch was over, their composure loosened. Shay O’Brien and Lordan extended the gap, and the Ballincollig lead stood at three with 14 to go.
Edmund Burke set up O’Herlihy for a first Barrs score in the latter half, after 50 minutes, but two more had Ballincollig five clear with as many minutes to go.
Still, the Barrs refused to bow. Cork U16 Edmund Burke clipped a free and then came the drama: added time, a slick move the length of the field. Dee to O’Regan, then CJ Barrett, Callum Harrington, Eli McKeown, through to Conor Garvey, out to who else, but Burke.
Burke’s shot saved by McCarthy onto the post, chaos in the square, and finally – penalty awarded.
The time between that moment and the conversion was around 120 seconds. So when O’Regan sent it to McCarthy’s bottom left to leave a point in it with 65 minutes gone, the Barrs were furious having been given no time left to chase it.
Regret for the Togher side will linger in the 20-minute second-half drought, a span in which they coughed up all the authority built by two stunning orange flags.
Regret too in the sight of McCarthy’s save and Daithí Murphy’s goal-line clearance late in the first half, moments that stopped them stretching an already improbable three-point advantage to six.
Ballincollig, for their part, kicked 13 wides and still survived. Not pretty, not polished, but enough.
The Barrs can take solace in their first half performance, at least. They took the lead early, the Village hit back, before a brilliant long-distance strike from O’Regan yielded an orange flag, and O’Herlihy added another sweet score to put them 0-5 to 0-2 up.
Ballincollig got it back to one, but then Garvey kicked another peach from distance to stun everyone.
They came oh so close, the goal eluding them until it was too late.
J Miskella (0-1 f), F Lordan (1 tpf, 0-1 f) 0-4 each, J Costello 1-1, S O’Brien 0-1.
L O’Regan 1-2 (1-0 pen, 1 tp), A O’Herlihy 0-3, C Garvey 0-2 (tp), E Burke, K McCabe 0-1 each.
D McCarthy; S Richmond, L Higgins, D Murphy; J Harrington, E Lynch, E Harris; J Miskella, E Ó hUrnaí; A Jowefowski, S O’Brien, F Lordan; J Costello, E Stack, C McCarthy.
C Barr for Jowefowski (HT), C McDonnell for McCarthy (38).
K Dee; H McTernan, CJ Barrett, A Crowley; S Fleming Byrne; C Garvey, E Naughton; E Burke, L O’Regan; F Power, E McKeown, C Harrington; A O’Herlihy, R Dunne, K McCabe.
D Clarke O’Mahony for Power (43), C Scully for Dunne (44), M O’Donovan for McCabe (58).
M Carey (Bride Rovers)
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