Burren Vs Kilrea
Final
Kilrea Pearses (Derry) 0:06
St. Mary’s Burren (Down) 2:09
6th March 2011
In a keenly contested first half of the Tommy Devlin Motors Sponsored Ulster U21 Club Football Championship Final saw reigning champions St. Mary’s Burren of Down take a 3 point lead over their Derry rivals Kilrea Pearses.
All scores from Burren in the first half came from frees, many of which were awarded in front of the posts due to all instances of dissent from offenders being immediately punished by referee Pat McEneaney by moving the free in closer.
A 4th minute free by Tommy Farrell of Burren was the first, and this was quickly added to by Sean Murdock in the 6th minute. In-between these scores, Patrick McNeill of Kilrea had missed a chance to level but Kilrea’s first score followed shortly and came from the boot of Brendan Quigg in the 10th minute. Two minutes later Sean Murdoch of Burren put over another free to restore their two point advantage and this was quickly added to with a Shay McArdle free kick to put Burren ahead by 0-04 to 0-01.
Minutes later, the first score from play came from the boot of Jack Kielt of Kilrea though the Derry champs did not score again until the 31st minute. In this period James Kielt missed some long distance frees and unusual for him he did not score in the first half. Tommy Farrell and Sean Murdoch added to the Burren total before the end of the opening period.
In the dying seconds the Kilrea number 5 Tiarnan Rafferty made a break up the field to finish off with a point from play.
HT – Burren 0-06, Kilrea 0-03
The second half started with Kilrea looking a lot more dangerous and purposeful about their business but James Kielt again was off target and was up to now finding it difficult to find his range.
A lot of fouls were committed in the early minutes and from one of these frees, Burren’s Tommy Farrell scored in the 6th minute to open the scoring in the second half. Again, the normally dependant Kielt missed another free for his side a minute later but the big midfielder made amends in the 9th minute with a long distance score from a free to keep them in touch.
Sean Murdock and Tommy Farrell responded though and added points in the 11th and 13th minutes for Burren.
The game took a defining twist when the unfortunate Brendan McCusker of Kilrea was sent off for a second yellow in the 17th minute of the second half making a comeback an even harder struggle for the Derry men. This seemed to galvanise the Kilrea side though and they played much of their best football from here forth. James Kielt discovered his shooting boots and converted two frees 19th and 20th minutes and he was unlucky 4 minutes later when his sideline kick just tailed narrowly wide.
At this point Kilrea seemed to run out of steam though as Burren began to run the ball out of their defence and they finished off the match in the 28 and 29th minutes by scoring two goals, one from Tommy Farrell and Shay McArdle adding the other. On an unsavoury note, Kilrea goalkeeper was sent off for a misdemeanour at the end of the game.
This was great victory for Burren and their team work helped them retain the trophy they won last year and at the same time end Kilrea’s great record for this team stretching back to under age competitions.
Burren scorers: T.Farrell 1-4, S.McArdle 1-1, S.Murdock 0-4.
Kilrea scorers: James Kielt 0-3; Jack Kielt 0-1; B.Quigg 0-1; T.Rafferty 0-1.
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