Daly’s men rejoice
Donard-The Glen see off Carnew to reach IFC decider
DONARD-THE GLEN seems to be slowly shaking the Aughrim monkey off their back. In recent times they have regularly fallen at this hurdle, no matter how well they had been playing elsewhere.
Last day out they were comfortable winners against An Tochar at the Aughrim venue and they continued in this vein when they had a one-point victory over a battling Carnew Emmets in the Intermediate football championship semi-final played on Saturday last to set up a fascinating decider with Coolkenno.
The Western side, playing into the town goal, made the early running and had two points on the board from Alan Daly and Shane Daly in the opening five minutes. Carnew were on the back foot at this stage but they got a lift when Enda Donohoe scored a fine goal to open their account after six minutes. An outfield pass, landed in on Conal McCrea, was cleverly knocked down by the full-forward into the path of the in-running Donohoe who finished well off his left foot.
John Doyle Jnr, who was playing much of the time out around the centre of the field at this stage, almost made it two goals for the Emmets when he brought a fine save from Brian Keogh, who did well to push away a cross which looked like sneaking in under the crossbar.
Carnew goalkeeper Cormac Doyle pointed a free after 11 minutes to push the Emmets into 1-1 to 0-2 lead at this stage.
Brian Lennon, who began the game instead of the absent Liam Mullen for Donard-The Glen, benefited from a bout of fingertip fumbling at midfield between John Walshe and John Doyle, gained possession and raced through to score a fine point.
Alan Daly levelled the game and Liam Monaghan had the western
side ahead by 0-5 to 1-1 when the game halted for the water break.
On the restart, John Kavanagh levelled matters again from a free and the Donard-The Glen goal had a narrow escape when a fisted pass across goal from Conal McCrea to John Doyle Jnr only went wrong when corner-back Clifford Grace slipped and knocked the unfortunate Doyle out of his stride.
Donard-The Glen were playing a more direct ball to their attack and went ahead again when Shane Daly benefited from Brian Lennon fisted pass and shot a point. Conor Healy struck a decisive blow when he weaved his way through the Carnew defence and beat Cormac Doyle with a ground shot just inside the post to put his side 1-6 to 1-2 ahead with
five minutes left in the half.
Carnew finished the half strongly with John Kavanagh adding two points in a row (two frees). However, in between, Brian Lennon scored the point of the game when he brilliantly judged a kick into the town goal to leave Donard-The Glen leading by 1-7 to 1-4 at the half-time break.
The Emmets hit the ground running in the opening minutes of the second half and reduced the gap to the minimum when John Kavanagh pointed a free and John Doyle scored from play. Liam Monaghan responded after eight minutes with a pointed free.
Donard-The Glen began to play a containment game by pushing forward and crowding out the middle third of the field. The scor
ing rate dropped without a score from either side for more than ten minutes.
Adrian Myers brought this drought to an end when he burst through and narrowed the gap again after 18 minutes but Donard’s Liam Monaghan converted another free to keep his side that two-point margin ahead.
The westerners were holding possession for long periods in the middle third of the field with the Emmets unable to launch the attacks they badly needed.
Midfielder John Hanbidge pushed the lead out to a goal with his only point of the game. Carnew made a determined effort to rescue the game in the final five minutes of play.
Justin House, on the field as a
substitute, fielded a high ball in front of the Donard-The Glen goal and scored a fine point. Another second-half substitute, Sean Murphy, was coming strongly into the game now as Carnew sought the equaliser.
They won a number of frees in the final minutes but they were all a distance from goal.
Goalkeeper Cormac Doyle was short with one, John Kavanagh landed a point from another free from 50 metres out and another Kavanagh free from a similar distance drifted just wide. In added time Kavanagh had one more chance but his effort dropped short and Donard-The Glen survived.