Beaufort prove too strong for Easkey in Junior All Ireland final
at Croke Park
EASKEY BEAUFORT
AN historic journey for Easkey ended in disappointment at Croke Park on Saturday as they were comprehensively defeated by Beaufort in the AIB Football Junior All Ireland Club Championship final.
But it was a journey that they can be proud of, and one that will go down in history.
THE whole parish of Easkey and indeed neighbouring clubs across Sligo travelled in force to Croke Park on Saturday to cheer on the Sea Blues as Dessie Sloyan’s men went into the history books as the first ever club from the Yeats county to reach an All-Ireland final.
Coincidentally, both Easkey and their opponents Beaufort line out in the same colours and supporters from the Sligo and Kerry outfits were making their voices heard in a sunny Croke Park before the 3pm throw-in.
As one young Easkey supporter remarked before the game, there was no one left in the west Sligo club as supporters young and old travelled from as far away as Australia to cheer on the Sea Blues in the hallowed turf of Croke Park. Before the ball was ever thrownin what the west Sligo side have achieved this year will live long in the memory of Sligo football, winning the county honours before defeating the Leitrim, Mayo and Galway champions and then overcoming a sturdy Red Hughs outfit from Donegal in the All-Ireland semi-final to book their place in Saturday’s final.
Meeting the Munster champi- ons from Kerry who were hoping to become the ninth club from the Kingdom to claim a junior title was never going to be easy and unfortunately from an Easkey perspective Beaufort had their eyes firmly set on the prize from the get-go and never looked back once Paul Faloon got the match underway.
Man-of-the-match Beaufort’s Liam Carey got their first score in the 2nd minute as the Easkey defence led by Noel McGuire at full back, had to work hard as Beaufort attacked with a Ciarán Kennedy goal-chance coming off James Lindsay with 5 minutes on the clock.
Then on 9 minutes, the Kerry side struck for their first of 3 goals, an attempt from Fergal Hallissey who was aiming for a point came fortuitously off the post into the arms of the lurking Ronan Ferris who goaled, Carey adding another point with Kennedy adding another as they went into a 6 point lead with 11 minutes registered.
Easkey got off the mark with Joe McHugh, Mikie Gordon, Dylan Sloyan and Lindsay all linking up with captain Eugene Mullen who scored from play on 13 minutes as Beaufort hit their first wide a minute later.
Beaufort got their 2nd goal on 18 minutes, Kennedy on target as the Kerry side were edging comfortably in front, the attacks kept coming as Hallissey added 2 more scores one from a converted free, with Danny Healy (2) and another from play from Ferris saw them 13 in front before Carey slammed home their third after a fine save from Easkey keeper Shane Kilgannon on Ronan Murphy fell into the path of Carey, Beaufort ahead 3-8 to 0-1 at the break.
The Kerry side added 6 more points after the resumption be- fore Easkey’s Jack Scott and Brendan McGrath had their own goal chance but Beaufort defended.
Gordon was brought down with Beaufort’s Seán Kelliher yellow carded, Joe McHugh sending over the free on 51 minutes with Kevin Duffy adding another for the Sligo side but the gulf was too much. Carey added his fifth point which was followed by an excellent score from play from Easkey’s Scott with teammate Jonathan Conway adding another for Easkey on 60 minutes before Hallissey (free) and Niall O’Connor finished the scoring for Beaufort who became the ninth club from the Kingdom to win the All-Ireland junior title as Easkey although it didn’t go their way on the day can be extremely proud of their historic year.
EASKEY: S Kilgannon, I Barrett, N McGuire, J Feeney,
É Moylan, R McHugh, J Lindsay, E Mullen (C), M Gordon, D Sloyan, J McHugh, E Healy, A Kilcullen, R McKenna, K Duffy.
Subs used: B Feeney for Lindsay (34), B McGrath for Kilcullen (37), J Scott for Moylan (46), H Gilroy for Sloyan (50), J Dunphy for Healy (56).
Scorers for Easkey: E Mullen (0-1), J McHugh (0-1, 1f), K Duffy (0-1), J Scott (0-1), J Conway (0-1). BEAUFORT:
M Moriarty, M J O’Connor, G Hartnett, S Kelliher, J O’Sullivan, M Breen, J Kissane, N Breen (C), R Murphy, P Doona, L Carey, F Hallissey, D Healy, C Kennedy, R Ferris
Subs used: C O’Connor for Kissane (17inj), D Coffey for Healy (41), J O’Reilly for O’Sullivan (41), P O’Sullivan for Breen (48), N O’Connor for Ferris (50), I McGillycuddy for Breen (51).
REFEREE: P Faloon (Down).