Féile glory for Sars
minutes of added-time, most of which was played against twelveman Glynn-Barntown after three of their players were sin-binned in quick succession.
In the end Sarsfields held out, but plenty of fingernails on their side of the field were well and truly chewed to the bone by then. The travelling Butters might have felt they were in for an afternoon with less stress after Darby Purcell fired to the Glynn-Barntown net in the fifth minute after great work in the build-up by Jake Fortune.
That countered an early Michael Mackey point and both Glynn-Barntown corner-forwards were on the scoresheet when Alan Mahoney pointed. Sarsfields notched their second goal in the tenth minute when Darragh Grant was quickest to react and blasted past Darragh Murphy after Hartigan’s free came down off the upright.
Darragh Carley opened his account in the 18th minute but Jason Gordon’s late free sent the Wexford town side in at the break the much happier of the two sides, leading by 2-1 to 0-3.
Gordon started the second as he ended the first, with a converted free, but his afternoon was over by the time his side registered again after he picked up a black card with nine minutes left.
Following that early Sars score, Glynn-Barntown completely took over. Ferdia Reynolds, Darragh Carley (two) and Luke O’Rourke picked off points but they really could have had several more. When Josh Carley’s goal came at the end of a fantastic team move it was the busting of a dam that was under pressure for quite a while.
However, after giving so much for a breathless 15-minute spell, they couldn’t finish out the game with the same intensity. Hartigan popped over a free after Purcell as fouled and added the winning goal from the spot in the 40th minute.
Sarsfields, as ‘A’ winners, will be hosted by Crosserlough from Cavan and will also meet Ramor United (Cavan) and the Limerick ‘A’ champions in Division 3, Group C, of the national Féile competition.