Bagnall runs up huge tally as Allenwood lift Division 2 title
Allenwood celebrate after winning the Senior Football League Division 2 title
Allenwood embellished their promotion to Division 1 of the Hanlon Concrete Senior Football League with the Division 2 trophy as they overcame a luckless Leixlip by six points in Saturday’s final at Cedral St Conleth’s Park.
Huge sympathy lies with their vanquished opponents, though, and you’d wonder how many black cats wandered across the path of the Leixlip side en route to the county grounds.
Having already lost Jack Barrett to a knee injury ahead of this game they saw dual star Jack Travers and former county midfielder Tommy Moolick depart with serious-looking shoulder injuries before experienced wing-back and another former county squad member Ronan Fitzsimons joined them on the sidelines with what looked like a bad knee injury.
That is a serious quartet of injured stars and will certainly dampen hopes the north-east border side may have had of landing the Intermediate title in the autumn.
The game itself was a highly entertaining affair, despite the lengthy interruptions for each injury (the first half ran fifteen minutes in order for Travers and Moolick to be attended to).
Allenwood looked the likelier winners for long spells, particularly with the injuries knocking their opponents back and they looked set to canter to victory when Johnny Byrne’s two-pointer seven minutes after the interval put them 0-15 to 1-7 clear.
But to their credit Leixlip, with Conor Lawlor and Darren McDermott outstanding in attack, somehow fashioned three goals in a twelve-minute spell to turn the game on its head and go 4-9 to 0-17 ahead with nine minutes remaining.
Allenwood, though, had Eoin Bagnall in unstoppable form in attack, and his two-pointer with five minutes left got them back to within two points and two Joey Cunningham fisted efforts brought them level.
Then, on the stroke of full-time Bagnall, who finished with a remarkable 1-12, struck again from just outside the ‘D’ to put them ahead and in injury time he added a close-range free from a three-up breach before putting the icing on the cake with a goal slotted just past the outstretched arm of goalkeeper Niall McConnell. Substitute Seán Dunne added a point for luck.
Leixlip had signalled their goal-scoring potential inside the first minute when wing-back Rory Flynn forced a fine double-save from Allenwood ‘keeper Stephen Carey, but they weren’t long finding the net.
Allenwood, ahead 3-1 thanks to three Bagnall points, found themselves outsmarted by Lawlor, who cut inside two defenders before being dragged back for a penalty which Moolick powered home to the top left-hand corner.
With Bagnall and Byrne doing most of the Allenwood scoring, Fitzsimons offered resistance with a wonderful two pointer aided by the strong breeze into the Kilcullen End and McConnell made a flying save to tip over a Jamie Gartland effort that was dipping in at the top corner.
Leixlip went ahead by 1-6 to 0-8 with a two-point free from Moolick and Lawlor added to that from a dinked pass from Jack Lawlor but after Moolick landed heavily and eventually walked off in severe pain, Allenwood finished the half the stronger with points from Bagnall (two) and Byrne seeing them go in one ahead (0-11 to 1-7).
Cormac Denagher and Colm Moran points paved the way for Byrne’s two-pointer, bringing his tally to five, but Leixlip stirred themselves and Jack Lawlor sent James Killeen through for the neatest of finishes across Carey for Leixlip’s second goal on 39 minutes.
Their third six minutes later was finished in the coolest of fashion by Conor Lawlor from full-forward McDermott’s knock-down and Fitzsimons burst through after a further six minutes only to be taken down by Brendan Hanafey, incurring his injury in the process. McDermott took on the spot-kick duties on this occasion, beating Carey to make it 4-9 (21) to 0-17.
That was to be Leixlip’s last score, although not for want of trying late on with Lawlor seeing a shot deflected out for a ’45 before hitting the post with a seemingly goalbound effort.
Substitute Rob Tone then palmed onto the crossbar on a day when luck completely deserted the men in maroon.
Stephen Carey; Ronan Guilfoyle, Seán Moran, TJ Moore; Brendan Hanafey, Darragh Malone, Jamie Gartland 0-1; John Dee, Alex Lenehan; Rory Moran, Johnny Byrne 0-5 (1tpf), Colm Moran 0-1; Eoin Bagnall 1-12 (0-4tpfs,0-4fs), Cormac Denagher 0-2 (1f), Joey Cunningham 0-2. Subs: Arron Dunne for Denagher 52, Seán Dunne 0-1 for C Moran 52, Mark Delaney for Guilfoyle 52, Callum O’Reilly for TJ Moore 55.
Niall McConnell; Seán O’Connor, Jack Travers, Kevin Connelly; Rory Flynn, Brian Gibbons, Ronan Fitzsimons 0-2 (tp); Tommy Moolick 1-2 (1-0pen,0-2tpf), Ciaran Silke; Darragh Melville, Jack Lawlor 0-1, James Killeen 1-0; Mark O’Toole, Darren McDermott 1-2 (1-0pen), Conor Lawlor 1-2. Subs: Conall Henson for Travers 21, Aodhán Carr for Moolick 30+8, Rob Tone for O’Toole 41, Dan Gallery for Fitzsimons 52.
Alan Archbold.
