Glanmire footballers finish with a two-point flourish to beat Ballincollig in Premier 1 Féile final
Liam Crean raises the cup as Glanmire celebrate their win over Ballincollig in the Premier 1 final. Picture: Noel Sweeney
A stunning closing three minutes from Glanmire that yielded a couple of two-pointers stunned Ballincollig in a cracking Feile 1 football final at MTU on Monday.
This game had everything but Ballincollig were the dominant team after the break so it took a tremendous finish from Glanmire to break their hearts.
No disgrace in losing this game as both teams played quality football but credit to Glanmire when defeat stared them in the face, they found the artillery to snatch the cup.
The opening exchanges were played at a ferocious pace with both sides producing flashes of superb passing and movement. Glanmire looked dangerous going forward and they were rewarded with the opening white flag.
A long-ball split the Ballincollig defence and Conor Walsh was on hand to kick a classy point.
Ballincollig responded well and were rewarded with a goal of sheer class three minutes later. Following good movement among the Ballincollig forwards, Ollie Power got in behind the defence to guide a fabulous shot to the corner of the net.
The Ballincollig fans in the stand were naturally elated as their team had looked second best up to this goal.
Glanmire took a few minutes to recover and they were rewarded with a point three minutes from the interval when Rian O’Donovan got on the end of an Ethan Brickley assist to split the posts.
At half-time, Ballincollig commanded a 1-0 to 0-2 lead but there was little to choose between these two committed sides.
Ballincollig started brighter on the resumption and after sustained pressure, they should have raised a green flag, but Dan O’Sullivan's goal-bound shot parried to safety by Liam Crean.
Ballincollig threatened again to raise their second green flag but when Ollie Power hit the post with a thunderous shot with five minutes remaining, Glanmire were left off the hook.
When the going got tough, the tough got going and with three minutes remaining Glanmire were awarded a free outside the arc.
Up stepped Gearoid Collins and the Glanmire substitute produced a monstrous two-pointer that tied the teams at 1-1 to 0-4.
The momentum was now with Glanmire.
Rian O’Donovan broke through the Ballincollig defence and kicked a monstrous shot outside the arc, it gave his side a two-point lead with time running out.
The Village were now starved of possession and O’Donovan put the icing on the cake with another classy point that finally broke the hearts of their opponents.
The Glanmire manager Mark Davis was naturally elated with his team's strong finish.
“To be fair we have had some great battles with this quality Ballincollig side over the last two years and thankfully today we got the vital scores in the closing minutes to snatch it at the death,” said Davis.
R O’Donovan 0-4 (1 2pt), G Collins 0-2 (2pt f), C Walsh 0-1.
O Power 1-0, W Twomey 0-1.
L Crean; D Considine, D Ó Donnchú, J O’Donovan; L Herlihy, D Soltani, R Davis; K Hurley, R O’Mahony; R O’Donovan, E Buckley, D Treacy; C Walsh, S Radley.
J Roche, G Collins, S O’Flynn, C Horan, K O’Connell.
S McGough; H Ryan, E Moore, J Archibald; K McSweeney, C Hannigan; F O’Leary, D Jozefowski; E Sexton, W Twomey, R Dineen, O Power, L Healy.
T Fitzgerald, M Harrington, J Corcoran, T Kelleher.
John Horgan (Gleann na Laoi)
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