Joy for Blessington
Blues beat Rathnew to reach Minor ‘A’ football decider
IT feels strange putting the report to Monday’s Minor ‘A’ football championship semi-final between Blessington and Rathnew together, knowing the embarrassing scenes that overshadowed it in the aftermath. For almost 70 minutes, however, the two sets of young stars engaged in a thrilling, backand-forth spectacle of a match.
The football that was played on the pitch was an exhibition of the exciting talent that is coming through the ranks at both clubs. In the end, Blessington just had too much quality for Rathnew, as, despite being reduced to 14men after Dan Featherstone was controversially shown a black card, Mike O’Toole stepped up with an exquisite late score to seal the deal.
Blessington were well up for the contest right from the off. O’Toole and Featherstone both sent efforts wide in the first exchanges, before the former finally put them in front with three minutes on the clock. Three minutes later, however, Blessington’s bright start was undone when Ross Quinn won the ball back in the Blessington square before bundling the ball into the back of the net.
Rathnew were the more physical team in the contact, but Blessington were the more composed when on the ball, best typified by their own first goal. Tom Fisher received the ball out on the left touchline, from which he played a clever kick pass inside to the onrushing Lukas Sarakuiskas. He used his pace to burst through the middle, before drawing the last defender across and moving the possession on to Mike O’Toole, who capped off the move with a nice finish.
Even though Blessington were moving the ball through the phases with vigour, Rathnew were
winning those 50-50, second balls, while having Eoin Doyle at full-forward to take advantage. The young prodigy chipped in with three more points to give Rathnew the lead, before Blessington once again turned the tables with a wellworked goal. Dan Cooney broke through the middle of the field before passing to Mike O’Toole, who moved the ball back to Cooney, who ran into the opened space and put the ball into the corner to make it 2-3 to 1-5.
Rathnew still finished the half well to end it in the lead through scores from William Moorehouse and another Eoin Doyle free.
The solution to Blessington’s first-half ails were addressed in the second-half as they committed more numbers into the midfield/ half-forward area to combat Rathnew’s superior physicality. That paid off with a lightning start. Austin Brennan brought the sides level before two goals in four minutes put them well in charge. First, Robbie Richardson was released down the inside-right channel, where he squared the ball across for Liam Phibbs, up from corner-back, to scramble home.
Then, on 37 minutes, a speculative strike from one of the Blesso men swerved, dipped and cracked
off the post. Whereas everybody else was ball-watching, Dan Featherstone was on the spot to convert the rebound. Leading 4-4 to 1-8 at this point, Blessington’s momentum was disrupted because of a five-minute break in play while the referee attempted to rectify an issue on the sideline.
Once the game got back underway, the proceedings became that bit more physical and feisty and, despite management urging the Blessington players to stick to their own game, they were drawn into conceding frequent fouls which were aptly put away by Eoin Doyle.
Doyle was then central to setting up the grand finish when he was released down the inside-right channel with one minute to go before the eight minutes of additional time. He was clean through on goal and the result was inevitable, as he unleashed a rasping strike into the corner. Trailing by just one point at 4-6 to 2-11, Rathnew were piling on the pressure. Blessington’s job was not made any easier when Dan Featherstone was shown a black card for blocking down an Aaron Douglas mark. Eoin Doyle slotted the resulting free to equalise.
Dan Cooney regained the lead, before a sensational Mike O’Toole strike settled matters. Tom Fisher did well to work the ball down the left and play it to O’Toole, who produced a stunning strike on the turn to make it a two-point game. Eoin Doyle was able to reduce the gap to one with another free, but it was not enough.
BLESSINGTON: Jack Sargent; Cillian Bailey, Luke O’Brien, Liam Phibbs (1-0); Killian O’Connell, Austin Brennan (0-1), James Dooley; Dan Cooney (1-2, 2f), Tom Fisher; Robbie Richardson, Sam Gough, Lukas Sarakuiskuas (0-1); Mike O’Toole (1-4, 1f), Dan Featherstone (1-0), Conor Richardson.
Sam Healy; Thang Tran Quoc, Killian Clarke, Adam Byrne; Callum Clarke, Ryan O’Toole, Sean O’Meara; Ben Free, Charlie Cruise; William Moorehouse (0-2), Toby Curran, Ewan Culbert; Reece Doyle (0-1), Eoin Doyle (1-10, 7f), Ross Quinn (10). Subs: Scott Devlin for E. Culbert (34), Aaron Dougles for R. Quinn (60).
Brendan Furlong (Tinahely)