Glen (Derry) 0-13; Scotstown (Monaghan) 0-11
The Glen march up the mountain of success continues apace.
Now that they have finally accounted for Monaghan rivals Scotown following a massive encounter at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh on Sunday, they will have little time to savor the defense of their Ulster title with the real and massive form of reigning All Ireland champions, Kilmacud Crokes, coming swiftly into focus in the semi-final.
It took a really top-class second-half performance from the Derry champions to topple the Farney men in front of an enthusiastic 6,000 fans they came from two points off the pace to edge ahead and ultimately win by two to collect their second ever Ulster crown.
Talisman Conor Glass, who weighed in with two points from midfield said afterwards that while they hadn’t considered a showdown with Crokes ahead of the Scotstown game, it was something that everyone in the club wanted to get the chance to put right following last year’s narrow final defeat in which the Dublin side controversially had 16 players on the pitch at a crucial time of the game.
Sunday was a dank and dreary day with rain and high winds making the conditions trying for both heavyweight line-ups in this battle. In the end, Glen managed to put two purple patches togethers which yielded four points in a row after the changeover to get them across the line.
With four provincial crowns in their club, Scotstown knew what it takes to win and they sure as hell gave it everything and a little more in seeking a fifth title but they couldn’t respond to those two moments of brilliance when Glen’s eight points haul in those periods left them a bridge too far to find parity.
Glen won that moiety by double scores - 0-8 to 0-4 and with Glass and man of the match Eunan Mulholland, who shot three points from play, dictating the trend at the most important point of the hour.
The wind too helped them gain this upper hand despite the best efforts of Scotown’s big names to wrestle control.
Rory Beggan landed a trademark second-half point from play while the impressive Jack McCarron and the ageless Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, also weighed in with scores in this epic encounter.
The Glen-Kilmacud All-Ireland semi-final has been pencilled in for the weekend of January 6/7 at a venue yet to be announced.
Glen: C Bradley; M Warnock, R Dougan (0-1), C Carville; E Doherty (0-1), C McFaul (0-1), C Mulholland; C Glass (0-2, 0-1f), E Bradley; E Mulholland (0-3), J Doherty, J McDermott (0-1); T Flanagan (0-1), D Tallon (0-3, 0-2f), J Doherty Subs: A Doherty for Glass (10–13) blood, A Doherty for J Doherty (55), SO’Hara for McDermott (62).
Scotstown: R Beggan (0-1); B Boylan, R O’Toole, D McArdle; C McCarthy (0-1), D Morgan, E Caulfield; D Hughes (0-1), M McCarville; J Carey, S Carey (0-3f), J Hamill (0-2); M Maguire, K Hughes (0-2), J McCarron (0-1) Subs: D Murray for Maguire (43), M McPhillips for Hamill (53), R Malley for Boylan (58), F Maguire for J Carey (62).
Ref: P Faloon (Down).
Castlehaven (Cork) 0-13; An Daingean (Kerry) 0-13 (AET)
Castlehaven won 4-3 on penalties
Cork and Kerry provide the oldest and keenest of GAA rivalries down the decades and Castlehaven and Dingle kept the tradition going with a ding-dong battle in the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on a dreadful Sunday where a heavy sod and incessant high winds and rain did their best to ruin the spectacle.
It is to the credit of both clubs and their large support that they created an atmosphere which kept the contest pulsatingly on a knife-edge right down to the last penalty in that historic shootout way to decide this Munster SF club final.
Kingdom fans went home with heavy hearts as their side led going into the red zone on the clock after an hour’s play and again with extra time almost up. Indeed Castlehaven only got their noses in front by shooting home the fourth penalty which gave them the lead for the first time in the tie.
They had talisman Brian Hurley to thank for having nerves of steel to get them back to parity on both late, late occasions and the win now put them up against Connacht champions St Brigid’s on the weekend on January fifth or sixth.
The west Cork side delivered their fourth title with this sudden death victory
While the Kerry club kingpins had reached this stage of the competition for the first time in their history and were hoping to add another illustrious title to their past victories. That must wait now at least another 12 months and for many watching the game, they will feel a lot of sympathy that An Daingean were unable to finish off their opponents when given the two gilt-edged chances.
They were ahead by a point at the break, and deep into injury time against a by-then 14-man Castlehaven team, but leveled thanks to Hurley’s free to force the added two 10 minutes of extra-time.
Castlehaven had to expend a huge injury to force that equalizer and it looked like they had nothing left when Dingle went three points ahead in the first half of the added period.
The Cork boys knuckled down once again and slowly clawed back the Kerry advantage so that by the time Derek O’Mahony blasted the final whistle, it was even-Stephen once again.
For the first time in history the fate of the O’Connor Cup would be decided by sudden death penalty shootout and after a tense bout of spot kicks, the cup headed to West Cork for the first time in 26 years.
Hurley ended up man of the match and top scorer for his side with seven points - more than half his team’s tally.
Castlehaven captain Mark Collins said he was now looking forward to entering the All Ireland series and hoping his side could go all the way. “We have been knocking on the door in Cork for the last few years; we got close without getting over the line. We knew we won a good Cork championship and beat a lot of very good teams on the way to it. When we won the county we really wanted to push on and give the best account of ourselves in the Munster championship.
"We had extra-time against Cratloe in the quarter-final and we played Rathgormack down in Dungarvan - never an easy place to get out of - in the semi. We knew coming here that we had to up it. At times we didn't play our best football today but there's an unbelievable spirit in our group to get us over the line.
“Winning an All-Ireland is something as a club we've absolutely dreamed of. No one has ever achieved it in Castlehaven and it's something as a group we would absolutely love to do,” he stressed.
Castlehaven; D Cahalane; J O’Regan, R Maguire, R Walsh; T O’Mahony, D Cahalane, M Collins (0-2); C Cahalane, C O’Sullivan; J O’Neill, B Hurley (0-7, 0-4f, 0-1 '45), S Browne; C Maguire (0-4, 0-1m), J Cahalane, M Hurley Subs: J O’Driscoll for M Hurley (25), A Whelton for C Cahalane (30), C Cahalane for Browne (37), C O’Driscoll for C Cahalane (52), M Maguire for O’Neill (62), R Minihane for O’Sullivan (70), R Whelton for O’Neill (77), Ml Maguire for O’Regan (80).
An Daingean: G Curran; T O’Sullivan, D O’Sullivan, T O’Sullivan (0-1); N Geaney (0-1), C Flannery (0-1), B O’Connor; B O’Sullivan, B O’Connor; M Geaney, P Geaney (capt.) (0-4, 0-3f), M Flaherty (0-1); M Flannery, C Geaney (0-4, 0-3f), D Geaney (0-01) Subs: C O’Sullivan for D O’Sullivan (47), T Browne for M Flannery (52), P Devane for r Geaney (70), B Devane for Flaherty (74), B Kelliher for B O’Connor (82)
Ref: D O’Mahony (Tipperary).
GAA Results
Munster SF Club Final
Castlehaven (Cork) 0-13; An Daingean (Kerry) 0-13 (AET)
Ulster SF Club Final
Glen (Derry) 0-13; Scotstown (Monaghan) 0-11
