Tullylease deliver goals to land Junior C title against Glenlara

Tullylease 4-9 Glenlara 0-6

TULLYLEASE ended a 16-year famine to lift the Duhallow Junior C Football Championship title at the expense of a brave Glenlara in the Mountcollins hosting.

Victory was well deserved for Tullylease, parading far more energy and purpose to their play on operating with an intensity and hunger that Glenlara failed to match. Not since the days of 2003 when Tullylease won a B title, had the men in red and white enjoyed a fruitful return.

After so many setbacks and disappointments over the years, Tullylease got their hands on welcome football silverware.

Nobody could question Glenlara’s workrate or resolve, well in the hunt for much of the opening half. However Tullylease availed of a rewarding semi final win over holders Lismire and simply put, Glenlara were unable to function with Tullylease’s flair and fluency that yielded telling goals.

A competitive opening half saw the sides trade points, Glenlara well in the hunt on availing from the solid workrate of Pierce O’Brien, Tim and Joe Collins. And in attack, the play of Lee Deane and Conor Fitzpatrick helped find the target.

Still Tullylease’s game carried a greater threat with Jason Sheehan, James Sheehy and Shane Hehir split the uprights before Markie Sheehy netted a goal for a 1-5 to 0-4 advantage at the break. Once the second half resumed, Tullylease held the edge with the play of P J Burke, Niall Collins and Markie Sheehy inspiring confidence.

Going forward, Tullylease held multiple attacking threats with Sheehy, Hehir and Burke blasting home goals in quick succession. For their part, Glenlara’s biggest problem lay with their difficulty on winning anything like as much possession as their opponents.

Indeed Glenlara were thankful to ‘keeper Alan Dugdale on producing a series of terrific saves. The game drifted to its conclusion, Tullylease kept the scoreboard ticking on late points to Collins and James Sheehy.

Duhallow Junior Board Secretary Tony McAulliffe presented the silverware to Tullylease captain James Sheehy. TULLYLEASE: Damien Stokes; E Hannigan, M O’Meara; J Sheehan 0-1, P J Burke 1-0, N Collins 0-1; M Sheehy 2-1, D Geary; E O’Gorman, A O’Gorman, S Hehir 1-2; Stephen Stokes, J Sheehy 0-4f. Subs: Don Stokes for A O’Gorman, N Stokes for E Hannigan, Simon Stokes for E O’Gorman, T Carroll for Stephen Stokes.

GLENLARA: A Dugdale; T McAulliffe, P O’Brien; John Collins, T Collins, J Murphy; T Fitzpatrick, Joe Collins; L Deane 0-3, M Fitzpatrick, John McAulliffe; S Casey, C Fitzpatrick 0-2. Subs: A Cronin for M Fitzpatrick, N O’Sullivan for J Collins.

REFEREE: E Walsh (Freemount)