Tinahely topple Donard-The Glen to seal Junior ‘C’ final spot

TINAHELY DONARD-THE GLEN 2-10 1-06

GOALS from Stewart Gilbert and Enda O’Keeffe and a fine defensive showing helped Tinahely to seal their place in the 2017 Junior C football final thanks to a 2-10 to 1-06 victory over Donard-The Glen in Annacurra last Thursday night.

Both majors came in the second half, the first in the opening minutes of the second period when a poorly struck Eric Donohue free was spilled by Enda Walshe and there was the sniping Gilbert who stroked home. The second goal came after a sweet move up the field involving eight Tinahely players including Enda O’Keeffe who was on hand to fire a rocket home to the bottom corner and kill the game off as a contest close to the end. In truth, though, it was the work of the Tinahely defence, most notably Ray McGlynn and Brian Hickey, who deserve the plaudits for this victory. Hickey was dominant on Eddie Flynn, while McGlynn negated Laurence Daly’s influence on the game completely, and without those two players to the fore the Donard challenge was always going to struggle.

The Donard-The Glen players and supporters were less than impressed with referee Gerry Corbett during this game. They felt that Tinahely were winning frees far too easily while infringements against their players were not reacted to with the same urgency.

A 0-05 to 0-04 half-time score is testament to the fact that the opening moiety was a forgettable affair, with four of the Tinahely points coming from frees, three from Eric Donohue and the fourth from Anthony Phelan as the pair shared the place kicking duties for the evening.

It took Donard-The Glen 19 minutes to register their first score, at which point Tinahely were leading by 0-04 to 0-00. Des Mann was the player to chalk up that point.

Donard-The Glen deployed Eddie Flynn and Laurence Daly inside for the start of this game, but Tinahely instructed Ray McGlynn to make the talented Daly. And mark him he did.

Eric Donohue’s fourth point of the day after 21 minutes was the last Tinahely would manage in the opening half as Donard-The Glen began to exert some dominance. Points from Steve Doherty and two from Des Mann (one free) left things looking very positive for the west side despite them having played way below par under the lights in Annacurra.

Tinahely’s cause received a massive boost when Gilbert fired home shortly after the restart, but Eddie Flynn dropped over a decent score to reduce the deficit to three points shortly afterwards.

After eight minutes of the second half, Donard-The Glen made a switch which may have been key to what unfolded in the next 20 minutes. They took off corner-back Gavin Walshe and sent Gerard Daly back to the corner and pulled Oisin Adler back to the half-back position.

Tinahely would score the next five points unanswered, with Daly’s removal from the half-back line a possible cause for the Tinahely purple patch. Willie Quaile grabbed the first, Phelan scored two, one free, Conor Kenny added a point and substitute Enda O’Keeffe hoisted over the last to make it 1-10 to 0-05 in what was a fatal period for Donard-The Glen.

In fairness to the west men, they almost got in for two goal chances during that period and they also lost Steve Doherty to a black card but they didn’t score until the 28th minute of the second half when Pat Flynn split the posts.

Moments later as Donard-The Glen laid siege to the Tinahely goal, a high ball was gathered by Brian Hickey. He fisted it to Ray McGlynn who picked out Kevin Doyle who in turn fed substitute Danny Quinn. Quinn returned the favour to Doyle who played a neat one-two with McGlynn. On went Doyle and he picked out Tony Lacey who slipped off a nice pass to Donohue who kicked neatly to Willie Quaile who released O’Keeffe with a deft flick and O’Keeffe unleashed a wicked shot to the bottom corner of the Donard net to seal victory for the Tinahely men.

Laurence Daly would rattle Kevin Darcy’s net moments later but it was way too little, way too late for Donard as Gerry Corbett sounded the final whistle to send Tinahely on to the Junior C football final where they will meet the men of Ashford on October 14 in Pearse’s Park, Arklow.

Scorers - Tinahely: Eric Donohue 0-03 (3f), Anthony Phelan 0-03 (2f), Enda O’Keeffe 1-01, Stewart Gilbert 1-00, Shane Kenny 0-01, Willie Quaile 0-01.

Donard-The Glen: Des Mann 0-03 (1f), Laurence Daly 1-00, Pat Flynn 0-01, Eddie Flynn 0-01, Steve Doherty 0-01.

Kevin Darcy; Tony Lacey, Brian Hickey, Thomas Dalton; Willie Quaile, Kevin Doyle, Ray McGlynn; David Dillon, Niall Gorman; Conor Kenny, Noel Mulhall, Eric Donohue; Shane Kenny, Stuart Gilbert, Anthony Phelan. Subs: Enda O’Keeffe for S Kenny, Danny Quinn for , Bill Kavanagh for S Gilbert.

Enda Walshe; Gavin Walshe, Brendan Daly, Steve Pierce; Joseph Whyte, Michael Daly, Gerard Daly; Rory Toomey, Pat Flynn; Oisin Adler, Steve Doherty, Dean Mann; Des Mann, Eddie Flynn, Laurence Daly. Subs:

Gerry Corbett