Valleymount emerge from thriller with Coolkenno

VALLEYMOUNT COOLKENNO 0-16 2-08

VALLEYMOUNT and Coolkenno served up a thriller in this Arklow Bay Junior ‘C’ football championship play-off game on Sunday evening in Hollywood.

As they drew in the qualifying round earlier, they needed a playoff to see who would progress.

Amazingly it took extra-time to see who would advance after Coolkenno landed a major in the third and final minute of added time just as everyone thought a third outing would be required to seperate them.

The west side hit the ground running with two opening points by David Miley and Sean Geoghegan.

Cormac Byrne landed the opening point for Coolkenno in the 13th minute and they increased their lead with points from Ger Nolan, Seamus Kenny and Ian Roche.

Adam Condon split the posts from a 45 for Valleymount but Karl Timmins enhanced Coolkenno’s lead after great work by Colin Murphy who was having a right physical battle with Derek Reid.

Paul Foster made a dashing run up the field and tagged on a point for Valleymount to leave the minimum in it going into the break with Coolkenno leading by 0-05 to 0-04.

Adam Condon pointed in the first attack for Valleymount to draw the game one more time.

Valleymount were playing the better football at this stage an increased the lead with points from David Miley and Amby Miley.

Corner-back Davy Fitzpatrick knocked over a smashing point as Valleymount were flying at this stage.

Ger Nolan steadied the Coolkenno ship with a point in the 50th minute with the score reading 0-08 to 0-06 in favour of the west men.

Kiev Leonard pushed the lead up to three. Amby Miley was winning lots of possession and when he landed a point in the 58th minute, Valleymount looked home and dry.

Ger Nolan pointed on the 61st minute mark as we went into two more additional minutes.

Unbelievably, Coolkenno bagged a goal from Cormac Byrne with the last kick of the game to leave the full-time score 0-10 to 1-07 to send us to extra-time.

This was the last thing both teams required as players were cramping up big time.

Valleymount outplayed Coolkenno in the opening period of extra-time and added three points to lead 0-13 to 1-07 and Valleymount also had a goal ruled out for a square also from an indirect free kick to close out the first half of additional time.

On the restart, Hugh Naughton ensationally levelled the game with a major in the opening minute to stun Valleymount.

Ian Roache put this battling Coolkenno side in front with a point with four minutes left on the clock as it looked like a war-zone at this stage with plenty of bodies going down with cramp.

Up stepped Paul Foster to level this thriller again with 77 minutes played.

Gary Walsh put Valleymount back into the lead in the 80th minute before Paul Foster sealed the deal with a point a minute later as the full-time whistle sounded.

Scorers - Valleymount: David Miley 0-04, Paul Foster 0-03, Séan Geoghegan 0-02, Adam Condon 0-02, Amby Miley 0-02, David Fitzpatrick 0-01, Keiv Leonard 0-01, Gary Whelan 0-01.

Coolkenno: Cormac Byrne 1-01, Ger Nolan 0-03, Hugh Naughton 1-00, Ian Roche 0-02, Seamus Kenny 0-01, Karl Timmins 0-01.

Valleymount: Conor Harpur; Davy Fitzpatrick, Aidan Miley, Christy Miley; David Richardson, Paul Foster, Diarmuid Nugent; Dereck Reid, Adam Condon; Johnny Cahill, David Miley, Amby Miley; Daragh Callaghan, Séan Geoghan, Keiv Leonard.

Coolkenno: Stephen Donoghue; Chris Bowes, Anonthy Keogh, Cormac Doyle; Seamus Kenny, Ian Roche, Billy Lucas; Colin Murphy, Micheal Noctor; Padraig Waterton, Ger Nolan, Keith Farrell; Cormac Byrne, Hugh Naughton, Karl Timmins. Subs: Podge Waterton, Tom Bolger.

Referee: Pat Dunne (Hollywood)