Joy as the cup returns home
Dunlavin beat Blessington
DUNLAVIN BLESSINGTON 3-08 1-04
A MIGHTY crowd had gathered as there was huge interest in the Dick Allen Memorial Cup final, as former Valleymount greats, the Reid Brothers, Ben and Gerry, were now managers in opposing camps, each with a son playing against one another, who are also grand-nephews of Dick Allen.
Huge bragging rights were at stake, as the losing manager also had to buy the ice cream.
Pat Dunne had restored the competition back down to Under-11 grade and it proved a huge success.
A big contingent had arrived from Blessington, looking to make it a double as their other U-11 team had won their Ray Daniels Cup for the first time, 48 hours earlier. However, Dunlavin had other ideas and weren’t here just to make up the numbers.
Eoin Deering scored a great goal to get Dunlavin off to a dream start in the third minute of the game.
Deering split the posts from a free moments later to increase the lead.
David Gilmore won the resultant kick-out and soloed up the field and unleashed a shot that shook the back of the Dunlavin net to put the Blues back in the hunt in the ninth minute. Conor O’Toole pointed for the Blues.
However, back came Dunlavin and Tom Doyle laid off to Liam McDonnell who finished to the net to restore the lead against a strong breeze.
Blessington were applying a lot of pressure but Pat Keogh was soaking it up and clearing anything that came his way. Tom Walsh had a shot that was cleared off the line by Brian Thackaberry.
Jake Muldowney and Archie O’Rourke had two inspirational blocks to prevent the Blues certain scores.
David Gilmore landed a mighty long-range point after good work by Charlie Reid with 20 minutes played in the opening half.
The tackles were flying in thick and fast. Eoin Deering fisted over a sweet point to increase the lead.
Thomas Walsh put in two great interceptions for Blessington as Dunlavin increased the tempo with the half-time whistle sounding with the score reading 2-02 to 1-02 in favour of the Dunlavin side.
Dunlavin, now aided with the wind, dominated the opening quarter of the second period and landed a string of points from Harry Reid, Tom Doyle and Archie O’Rourke.
Charlie Reid and David Gilmore battled away for the Blues, but could not get the final ball over the line on a number of occassions.
David Gilmore added a sweet point for the Blessington side but they still could not get a badly needed goal.
Harry Reid knocked over the final point of the game for Dunlavin with seven minutes of the game left.
Blessington battled away with Dylan Keogh and David Steed playing well, but they could not penetrate a well marshalled Dun- lavin defence who held out, to close out a right battle.
Blessington manager Ben was first in to congratulate Dunlavin manager Ger and Ben was later seen heading for the local Centra.
After the match, Pat Dunne thanked the referee who did a fine job and then Pat specially thanked Jimmy Birchall, who had organised these competitions for decades and who was now taken a well-earned break.
Pat Dunne then presented the Man of the Match Award to Pat Keogh, whose father Tom and grandfather Chris both played alongside Tony Allen many moons ago.
Pauline Allen presented the cup to winning captain, Darragh Corrigan to spark of massive celebrations as The Dick Allen Memorial Cup returned home.
Scorers - Dunlavin: Eoin Deering 1-03, Liam McDonnell 1-01, Harry Reid 0-02, James O’Reilly 1-00, Tom Doyle 0-01, Archie O’Rourke 0-01.
Blessington: David Gilmore 1-03, Conor O’Toole 0-01.