Abbey and OBS do the business in double header CBL finals
Abbey Business who defeated ISF Ballyphehane Celtic 4-1 to win the Frank Linehan First Division Cup for the first time at St. Colman’s Park last Saturday afternoon
As the CBL brings the curtain down on its inaugural short season ahead of the much anticipated move to calendar football in February, two divisional finals took centre stage last Saturday at St Colman’s Park.
First up was the afternoon showpiece between first time finalists ISF Ballyphehane Celtic and Abbey Business in the 34th Frank Linehan First Division Cup Final.
ISF Ballyphehane Celtic 1
Abbey Business 4
James Corcoran’s Celtic took the game to their opponents in the early stages and deservedly went in front on the half hour.
The impressive Sean Moynihan swung over an inviting corner which was powerfully headed past Timothy Connolly.
Abbey drew level within four minutes when from another dead ball situation Ronan Twomey’s in swinging corner could only be batted out by Alan Murphy for Rory Kelly to equalize from close range.
A break on the left resulted in Shane Murphy crossing for Abbey captain John McLoughlin to head his side in front for the first time on the stroke of half-time.
Abbey introduced Francis O’Callaghan, a veteran of two previous losing cup finals, as a second-half substitute and it wasn’t long before he increased his team’s lead in the 68th minute.
Man-of-the-match Ronan Twomey produced the pass of the match when his perfectly weighted pass split the Celtic defence for O’Callaghan to keep his head and steer the ball past Murphy for 3-1.
O’Callaghan put the icing on the cake when he delightfully floated a free-kick into the far corner with four minutes remaining.
ISF Ballyphehane Celtic: Murphy (capt.): Mealy, Williams (A Moynihan); O’Sullivan (Smith), Tier; Shanahan, Barry, Sing-Hennessy (Thompson), Moxamed (Keating), Lynam (Vangahun), S Moynihan.
Abbey Business: Connolly: Philpott (Crotty), Cullinane (Ryan); Murphy. Lucey; McCleverty (O’Donovan), Twomey, Kelly (Scully); McLoughlin (capt.), O’Driscoll, Sheehan (O’Callaghan).
Referee: Denis Cronin.
Assistants: Ken O’Driscoll, Stephen Madine. Fourth Official : Joe Harris.
Marlboro Trust 0
OBS 3
The league’s first and second teams fittingly met in the 23rd Shandon Cup Second Division Cup Final for the first and it was the champions OBS who took the spoils after scoring two insurance goals in the last fifteen minutes.
Both teams played with caution in the opening exchanges before the deadlock was broken in the 15th minute by leading scorer Niall O’Brien.
The energetic Sean Blake dispossessed Marlboro captain Alan O’Connor in the middle of the park.
The competitive midfielder burst through the middle before releasing O’Brien wide on the left to shoot low past Tiago Rodrigues.
Man-out-the match Blarke was again at the heart of the action ten minutes later when his powerful drive was deflected to safety by the legs of Rodrigues.
At the other end, Daniel Del Blanco crossed low for Daniel Hurley to set up Daniel Jaohari who dragged his shot narrowly past the near post with Jack Glennon at full stretch.
Mark Maher, who was playing his last match for OBS before moving to Australia, converted a penalty in the 75th minute which was followed by a third from sub Ross Daly, who got the final touch to a corner in a crowded area with four minutes remaining.
Marlboro Trust: Rodrigues : Murphy ( C McSweeney), Gilhooly; Lucey, Andreao; O’Connor (capt.) (De Souza), Hurley, Brazas ( P McSweeney; Jaouhari, Del Blanco, Da Conceicao (Marian).
OBS: Glennon : Loran, Drummond; L Maher, M Maher (capt.) (McGrath); Manley (Cambridge) , Kelly, Blake; O’Brien (Daly), Buckley, O’Reilly (Hennessy).
Referee: Ken O’Driscoll.
Assistants: Denis Cronin and Albert Navarro. Fourth Official : Joe Harris.
Doolan’s Cow 3
DHF Grangevale 8
Grangevale put a damper on Doolan’s’ seventh title celebrations by inflicting a first defeat of the season on the champions.
It looked like it was business as usual for the Cow as Tony O’Reilly opened the scoring with his 22nd of the season in the 10th minute.
However, the Vale’s response was devastating as striker Corey Harris grabbed a hat-trick inside ten first-half minutes before further goals from Alan Buckley, John Barry and Aaron O’Sullivan extended the lead to 6-1 by the 66th minute.
Still the goals flowed as O’Reilly pulled one back seven minutes later only for Billy Tabb to grab two more for the visitors.
O’Reilly’s 86th minute spot-kick brought the curtain down on a goal fest and a result Doolan’s would not have envisaged before kick-off.
MSL Engineering 1
FR Valley Rangers 6
Valley’s impressive win over MSL decided the final issue to be resolved as to whom was going to finish behind the top two as a hat-trick apiece from Adrian Carr and John Noonan confirmed the visitor’s third place finish.
John Martin Lehane signed off his campaign with his fifth of the season for the hosts.
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