O’Shea and Coffey goals see Fossa in county final

IN this hard fought and keenly contested encounter Fossa continued their impressive year by advancing to the final of the Junior Football Championship by seeing off fellow division four rivals Scartaglin.

In a wind swept Pairc Eamon in Farranfore (which was in great shape considering the recent inclement weather) John Evans charges struck for goals at crucial stages in both halves and this allowed them to keep the Scartaglin challenge at arms length.

Paudie Clifford was their go to man throughout and was pulling all the strings before his dismissal on a second yellow for an off the ball incident mid way through the second half. Wing-back Daniel O’Keeffe was also very prominent and corner forward Tadgh O’Shea finished with an impressive personal tally of 1-3.

For the vanquished Scartaglin side they defended resolutely and their counter attacking game kept the Fossa defence on their toes all through. Mike Coakley and Padraig Reidy impressed along with midfielders Daniel Murphy and Mike Horan but unfortunately they struggled to get any major return from their inside forward line.

Both sides exchanged scores in the early moments through Mike Horan and Domnhaill O’Sullivan before Scartaglin’s Brian Hanrahan had a goal bound effort in the eighth minute, which was well blocked by the Fossa defence.

Tadgh O’Shea edged Fossa ahead but Daniel Murphy levelled up once more from a free to leave the sides all square by the 15th minute. Fossa increased their wide tally to four shortly after before in the 21st minute they struck for a very well worked goal.

The ball was moved through the hands of a number of players before Clifford palmed the ball down to the in rushing midfielder Fintan Coffey, who finished emphatically to the net. O’Sullivan tagged on a free almost immediately and now Fossa looked to have got a run on their opponents with a four point lead by the 23rd minute.

Clifford was then booked for hauling back his marker and this would come back to haunt him later in the game. Horan converted a free to keep Scartaglin in touch before O’Sullivan showed good alertness to follow up on a shot by Clifford which was blocked to give Fossa a 1-4 to 0-3 point lead at the break.

With the wind firmly at Scartaglin’s back at the start of the second half they hit the ground running and had the deficit cut to a single score by the 36th minute with points from Brian Hanrahan, Horan once more and a rousing score from Coakley after being fed by the hard working Pa Rahilly.

Fossa seemed a little rattled by this early onslaught but midfielder Matthew Rennie settled the nerves with a curling effort from play before corner-forward O’Shea tapped over a further free in the 43rd minute to extend the lead to three points once again.

The decisive score of the game then arrived in the 45th minute, when after great approach work by Clifford , he laid off to O’Shea on his shoulder and he gave keeper David Kerins no chance. Scartaglin really had a mountain to climb now and it was hard to see them overcome it when working so hard for their scores and a forward line that was just not firing.

They never gave up however, and after Clifford was dismissed in the 49th minute after referee Peter Lyons consulted his umpires, centre-forward Pa Rahilly converted to leave Fossa five ahead entering the final five minutes.

O’Shea completed his impressive tally with a fisted effort, and try as they might, Scartaglin could lust not pierce the dogged Fossa defence. Fossa played keep ball in the final moments to advance to what should be a cracking final meeting with Beale. FOSSA: Colin Myers, Colm Walsh, Kevin McCarthy, Anthony Wharton, Darragh Rice, Mark Dennehy, Daniel O’Keeffe, Fintan Coffey (1-0), Mathew Rennie (0-1), Mikey O’Shea, Lorcan Daly, Paudie Clifford, Tadgh O’Shea (1- 3, 1f), Kenneth Clifford, Domnhaill O’Sullivan ( 0-3, 1f) Subs: Michael O’Keeffe for Kenneth Clifford, 32, Damien Dennehy for Anthony Wharton (black, 52), Daniel O’Connell for Daniel O’Keeffe (black, 57), Brian Myers for Mikey O’Shea, 58 SCARTAGLIN: David Kerins, Alan Horan, Brendan Rahilly (c), Ger O’Connor, Aaron Gallagher, Mike Coakley (0-1), Padraig Reidy, Daniel Murphy (0-1, 1f), Mike Horan (0-3, 1f), Brian Hanrahan (0-1), Pa Rahilly (0-1), Tom Forde, Kieran Herlihy, Niall Casey, Hugh O’Connor Subs: Sean P. O’Connor for Alan Horan, (black, 57), Thomas Fortune for Hugh O’Connor, 59, William O’Connor for Kieran Herlihy, 59, Jack Walsh for Aaron Gallagher 61 REFEREE: Peter Lyons (Cromane)