Castledermot hold off strong finishing Confey to lift MFC 'D' title
Castledermot celebrate their win Photo: Sean Brilly
Castledermot held off a brave Confey challenge to claim the Manguard Plus Minor Football D Championship in Manguard Park on Saturday.
The South Kildare side’s greater efficiency in front of the posts proved decisive, but they had to withstand a ferocious last quarter effort from Confey which saw them reduce a six point gap to just one.
Confey looked the stronger outfit in the opening quarter, but they dropped three efforts short and shot a couple of wides and they only had two points from joint captain Philip Hallinan to show for their dominance.
When Castledermot’s first score came after fifteen minutes it was a major. Nicky Bowens long range free dropped short but wasn’t dealt with between goalkeeper Darragh Boland and his defenders and Cian Murphy was on hand to finish to the net.
Bowens quickly added a point from play but an opportunistic goal from Jack Rahilly put Confey back in the ascendancy. The full-forward seemed bottled up to the left of the goals but managed to hook the ball into the far corner over his shoulder to put Confey 1-2 to 1-1 ahead after 22 minutes.
Castledermot finished the half the stronger, though, with a classy point from Donnchadh Kinch and one each from Greg Kelly and the impressive Bowens. Gerard Hallinan responded for Confey, but they went in trailing by 1-4 to 1-3 at the interval.
The two full-forwards, Jack O’Gorman and Rahilly, exchanged points early in the second half before Castledermot went two clear with points from Seán Behan and Kinch.
The game’s crucial score arrived on 45 minutes when corner forward Bowens slotted calmly to the net under goalkeeper Boland to make it 2-7 to 1-4.
To their great credit, Confey knuckled down from there to the end. Three minutes after the Castledermot goal, Gerard Hallinan set up Ben Corscadden for a palmed finish to the net and they added points from the excellent Philip Hallinan and Aodan Jordan on 53 and 58 minutes to make for a nervy finish for the eventual winners.
Unfortunately for the Leixlip men, late efforts from Corscadden and Philip Hallinan tailed wide and the Damien Hendy managed Castledermot outfit held on to claim the title.
Daire Phelan; Eoin Gray, Johnny Lawler, Tadhg Jackman; Archie Galvin, James Slattery, Gearoid Proctor; James Gannon, Donnchadh Kinch 0-2; Seán Behan 0-1, Cian Murphy 1-0, Greg Kelly 0-1; Nicky Bowens 1-2, Jack O’Gorman 0-1, Luke Phelan. SUBS: Callum Dowling for Phelan 7, Torin Flood for Jackman 53, Cian Keogh for Behan 60, Conor Byrne for O’Gorman 60+3.
Darragh Boland; James Cleary, Alex Rochford, Conor Grehan; Ruairi Maher, Phillip Hallinan 0-3 (1f), Josh Murphy; Aodan Jordan 0-1, Eoin Hanly; Gerard Hallinan 0-1, Ben Corscadden 1-0, Seán Murphy; Dylan O’Reilly, Jack Rahilly 1-1, Liam Ryan. SUBS: Alex Lynch for O’Reilly HT, Aaron Maher for Grehan HT, Daniel Gaskin for Ryan 34, Michael McGlynn for Lynch 51.
Alan Lagrue
