County Junior Semi-Final
Glin 2-08
Patrickswell 0-06

A good crowd turned out at Mick Neville Park last Tuesday night to see who would advance to this year's decider. We knew that this would be a tough physical encounter against a Patrickswell team that had eliminated Galtee Gaels in the previous round. That Galtee Gaels team took us to extra time in last year's County Semi Final before we narrowly got the better of them so we knew this would be a good yardstick on the level we're playing at.
The game itself started at 100 miles an hour with both teams shooting plenty of wides. Philip opened the scoring for us with a great point but Patrickswell responded from a free. Pádraig Scanlon kicked our 2nd point before they again equalised. At this stage we took control of the game but inaccuracy in front of the posts was becoming a real problem for us. Philip then burst through the defence with his piledriver from 20 yards skimming the top of the crossbar as he registered our 3rd point. Mark Culhane then found Tommy Culhane with a long delivery and Tommy hit a superb curling point on the turn. At half time score read: Glin 0-04 : Patrickswell 0-02.
We were disappointed at half time as the 2 point lead certainly didn't reflect the amount of chances that we had created, especially as we dropped numerous balls short to their keeper and our shot selection at times just wasn't right. We started the second half just as we would have wanted and when Pádraig Scanlon's overhead flick released Tommy, he beat his man and fed the onrushing Moloney who crashed the ball to the net, to increase our lead to 5 points. Minutes later Edmond Horan found Paul Sheahan in space. He brought the ball forward at pace before finding Mark Culhane bursting through the middle and his rocket from 12 yards nearly took the net off as he found the top corner. Edmond was now dominating everything around the middle and Pádraig Costello was controlling everything that hit the floor as usual. Costello set up the next score as he brilliantly burst forward again and laid the ball off to Paul who finished well. Darren Sheahan got in on the action as he curled over a fine point and then added a free straight after. Philip concluded our scoring with another long range point which meant that we had now hit 2-04 without reply in the second half. We did appear to take our foot off the pedal for the final 10 minutes which was disappointing and Patrickswell to their credit kept battling, adding the last 4 points of the game and had one great effort on goal which Michael Stack did brilliantly to save. The final scoreline read: Glin 2-08  Patrickswell 0-06.

Despite the number of missed opportunities in the first half when playing against a light breeze, overall this was still a decent performance. We have achieved our first 2 goals set out at the start of the year, winning the West and getting back into the County Final but we know that our toughest game of the season lies in waiting. We were aware from the start of the year that if we were to finally achieve our goal of winning the County, one of our biggest challengers would be Kilteely-Dromkeen and so it will be when we meet in the decider in Ballyagran on Saturday, November 1st.

Team: M. Stack, T. O'Connor, B. O'Donovan, H. Dunne, John Wallace, M. Sweeney, P. Costello, P. Moloney (1-3), E. Horan, P. Sheahan (0-1), M. Culhane (1-0), D. Sheahan (0-2), P. Scanlon (0-1), P. Fitzgerald, T. Culhane (0-1). Subs: T. Scanlon for M. Sweeney, A. Mulvihill for D. Sheahan, G. Culhane for T. Culhane , K. Scanlon for T. O'Connor,  James Wallace for P. Scanlon, K. Sweeney, J. Fitzgerald, B. Culhane, M. Sheehy, S. Shine.

West Minor 13-aside Final

Well done to Shannon Gaels minors on their wonderful victory in the West Final last Saturday in Foynes. The Glin-Ballyhahill combination had a 100% record coming through the qualifying group on their way to meeting Ballysteen in the Final. In an exciting affair the Gaels played wonderfully well to record a 2-12 to 2-08 victory. Well done boys!

Fixtures

Junior A County C'ship Final: Glin vs Kilteely-Dromkeen, Saturday, Nov. 1st at 1.45pm in Ballyagran. Should there be any late fixture changes, we will post them on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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