Belcoo Vs Burren
Thomas Devlin Motors Ulster U21 Club Football Championship
Semi-Final
Belcoo O’Rahilly’s (Fermanagh) 1:03
St. Mary’s Burren (Down) 4:13
13th February 2011
Burren sent out a clear message to the
remaining contenders in the Thomas Devlin Motors Ulster U21 Club Football
Championship that they had no intention of giving up their title following a
very convincing 19 points win over Fermanagh’s Belcoo O’Rahilly’s.
David O Hare opened the scoring for the defending champions in the first minute of play with a well taken point. Two minutes later Eamonn Toner was pulled down in the large square and Sean Murdock drilled the ball to the net from the resulting penalty.
Belcoo scored their first point from a Jonathan Feeley free in the 6th minute. The football was certainly intense with tackling both tough but fair. In the 12th minute Feeley added his and Belcoo’s second point from a 20m free. Shay McArdle then responded with a great goal for Burren, taking a long pass from Murdock before leaving his marker in his wake and placing the ball low into the corner of the net. A minute later Burren’s Eamonn Toner fired over a long range point to move his side six points clear.
Sean Murdock expertly added another point and Burren seemed to be easing clear, however Belcoo were not to roll over just yet as Paul Duffy scored a clever close range goal to keep the Fermanagh side in touch.
Eamonn Toner fisted his second score of the game in the 24th minute to push the Down men 5 points clear which was supplemented by two points from Burren’s sharp corner forward O’Hare and Tommy Farrell. This closed out the half with Burren enjoying an 8 point lead going in to the changing rooms.
HT- Burren 2:07, Belcoo 1:02
The Fermanagh side would have been needing the opening score of the 2nd half if they were to have any chance of overcoming the Down champions however disastrously they conceded a penalty with only two minutes gone. Just as he did in the opening period Sean Murdock kept his nerve and coolly slotted the ball home to take Burren 11 points in front.
The Mourne County men added two more points in as many minutes, one being a fantastic long range effort from the impressive Murdock. In the 11th minute Eamonn Toner effectively killed off the game as a contest with Burrens 4th goal.
Tommy Farrell and substitute Gavin Sands added points a piece in the 13th ad 14th minutes with Alan Higgins adding his name to the Burren list of scorers with his first score of the game in the 19th minute. With ten minutes of the match remaining, Belcoo recorded their only score of the 2nd half with an excellent point from the hardworking midfielder Patrick Burns.
The last score of the game came from the boot of Burren’s Thomas Farrell with the Down kingpins running out comfortable winners and reaching their second consecutive final on a score line of 4:13 to 1:03.
The Brian Denver Plumbing Man of the Match award was given to Burren’s No 4 Redmond Hanna for a very solid display in the Burren defence.
Burren Scorers: S Murdock (2:02), E Toner (1:02), T Farrell (0:04), D O Hare (0:03), S McArdle (1:0), A Higgins (0:01)
Belcoo Scorers: J Feeley (0:02), P Duffy (1:0), P Burns (0:01)
Match report kindly supplied by Sean Nelson
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