Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 9-8
Ballyvarley 1-2
When last these two teams met in the round robin section of the championship Cumann Pheadaír Naofa came away with a 17pt win after having been given the fright of their lives when the sides were level at half time as the home side matched the blues for intensity and passion in an equally contested first half. But with the winner of this game progressing to the final the blues were determined not to let slip any advantage and make sure their visitors didn’t surprise them a second time.
It took four minutes of nervous endeavour before the blues broke the deadlock when Ben Lock stabbed the sliotar past the Castlewellan keeper from inside the six-yard box. Oran Murney added the first of his scores when he neatly dropped the sliotar over from 30m out. Ballyvarley struck back when a long angled crossed travelled all the way to the net from 50m out. Ballyvarley pressed hard to get their noses in front, but with Mark Campbell back from illness and the inspirational figures of Oisin Ruane and James Sweeney to fall back on the visitors were not going to get too many easy scores. A series of wides dictated the pattern for the next few minutes as scoring chances went begging inside the Ballyvarley danger zone. When Murney added a second sublime angled point from off the back foot and Jarlath Donnelly swept home the blues second goal the home side had seemed to settle into a rhythm that saw them score a further 2-3 over the next ten minutes, as first Darragh Austin, then Liam O’Connor added points, before Lock and Mickey Keohane both added goals to give the blues a twelve-point advantage. Tiernan Keely & O’Connor were bossing midfield and gave the reds plenty to think about with every attack. The half closed out when O’Connor once more fired over the crossbar from forty metre out with two minutes left. Lock, who was playing his best game of the year was involved in nearly all of the blues goal mouth action and could easily have increased his sides dominance towards the end of the half but for some misfortune with his shooting under pressure. The blues held a healthy 4-5 to 1-1 half time lead.
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa got off to flying second half, when a surging run from O’Connor saw his saw his thirty-metre shot go inches wide of the left-hand post within seconds of the restart. He was not to be denied, as three minutes later he drilled the sliotar to net from a similar position to add to goal that Murney had scored a moment earlier. Ballyvarley never gave up and opened their second half account with a well taken 30m point. A switch just before half time saw Ben Lock move further out the field with O’Connor closer to goal, it allowed Tiernan Kelly more freedom and he scored Cumann Pheadaír Naofa’s seventh goal midway into second half from outside the thirty-metre mark. The young blues finished up the final ten minutes with two further goals from Murney & O’Connor to ensure that they progress to next week’s Shield Final against Castlewellan, who had a seventeen victory at home to a vastly improved Carryduff side in the other semi-final. This will see a rematch of the Féile Final when a hungry and tigerish Warrenpoint side outplayed a strong side from the town.
Team: T Burns, M Campbell, C McMahon, J Sweeney, O Ruane, A McDonald, T Kelly 1-0, L O’Connor 2-3, D Austin 0-1, O Murney 2-4, J Donnelly 1-0, M Keohane 1-0, B Lock 2-0.
R McShane for Donnelly, O Gambold for Keohane, R McIntyre for Austin, S Crawford for McDonald, S Greenan for Sweeney
