Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 3-7 V Newry Shamrocks 1-12
A sublime point five minutes from full time from the young Niall McParland was the difference on the day between these two neighbours. Shamrocks were guilty of some terrible wides over the hour, but credit must be given to Gerry O’Neill and his panel of players. Going into this game Shamrocks would have been firm favourites to progress to the Final having always had the better of their Warrenpoint neighbours over the last few years, but some fantastic defending from Feargal Murphy and Tom Daly kept Newry’s potent forwards at bay.
Cathal Fagan opened the scoring within two minutes for Cumann Pheadaír Naofa, but Newry struck back with a goal two minutes later when Paul Sheehan saw his 65m go all the way to the net. Previous years would have seen Shamrocks push on and establish a lead that was hard to pull back, but John O’Kane had the sliotar in the opposition net a minute later as the game saw some great inter play with Conor Keenan & Antoin Magill playing an integral part in holding control of the middle of the park. O’Kane kept the Warrenpoint side ticking over with a pointed free and a second from play with Paul Sheehan replying for Newry. With five minutes to go to the short whistle the sides were level with Conan O’Neill doing a great job on Shackling Sheehan’s influence and Tom Daly keeping Eoin McGuinness scoreless over the hour. The sides traded scores with two James O’Hare points and Keenan replying to Sheehan’s three points as the first half ended level 1-5 apiece.
Shamrocks Artie McGuinness opened the scoring for Newry and Sheehan added another as Newry took a two-point lead five minutes into the half. When Newry failed to clear their lines of danger when O’Kane had a 65m drop short the sliotar bounced out to Keenan who lashed it to the back of the net and see his side take a one-point advantage. Sheehan once more replied for his side with two 65m sailing straight over the bar and McGuinness who was struggling up front found the smallest of spaces to squeeze over another Shamrocks point with fifteen minutes to go. Cumann Pheadaír Naofa were not to be denied and when Conan O’Neill gained possession on the 45m line he slotted over a fine point after a great clearance from Feargal Murphy.
Newry struck a succession of wides that could have proved fatal for Cumann Pheadaír Naofa’s chances of progressing to the final and when O’Kane finished the sliotar to the back of the Shamrocks net the Warrenpoint bench sensed an upset was on the cards and the possibility of ending Newry’s hoodoo over them. A Gary Courtney point settled the Newry mens nerves as they narrowed the score to just a point. With less than eight minutes to play Gerry O’Neill and Mark Rafferty who was unable to play through injury made an inspirational change to the Cumann Pheadaír Naofa setup, by switching James McParland who was playing the role of sweeper into full back and spring his brother Niall into the half forward line from the bench. This proved a great tactical ploy as Niall found himself unmarked and when he next got possession he swung over what proved to be the match winner for Warrenpoint.
The game entered the final five frenetic minutes of play as Newry desperately tried to grab a match winning goal, but once more Daly Murphy and Jason Gray proved that they were not letting Newry steal a game they had worked so hard for. Sheehan grab Shamrocks last score from a forty metre free and one more final attack saw Eugene McConville emerge with the sliotar an avert any danger with the score finishing 2-7 to 1-12.
The final will possibly be in two weeks’ time against the winners of Carryduff and Kilclief.
Team & Scorers: M Murtagh, E McConville, T Daly, F Murphy, J Gray, K McCullagh, C O’Neill (0-1), C Keenan (1-1), A Magill, T Magill, M Teague, C Fagan (0-1), J O’Hare (0-1), J O’Kane (2-2), J McParland.
N McParland (0-1) for K McCullagh
