Early defeats prove costly for Brigid's
November 27, 2011However, it has to be appreciated that they were seriously hit by the loss of players through injury and emigration and this greatly undermined their hopes of making progress.
Five years ago the Ballinacree club took the step up to the 'A' ranks of junior football thanks to a victory over Clonard in the Junior B final at Pairc Tailteann and they made an immediate favourable impression in the higher grade by reaching the 2007 semi-finals where they lost to eventual champions Clann na nGael.
There was disappointment when they failed to reach the business end of the title race in 2008, but they made it through to the quarter-finals the following year when they were beaten by Longwood who went on to claim outright honours. Last year they won four of their five group matches to again reach the last eight, but Ballivor proved too strong as they continued their march to the decider where they went under to Ballinabrackey.
For the 2011 campaign St Brigid's went for a management team made up of Tom Briody, Peter Skelly and Stephen Farrelly to guide their fortunes, but their form in the opening rounds of the All-County A League Division 4 wasn't overly encouraging with the championship fast approaching.
They had home advantage for their first round meeting with leading Junior B outfit Moynalty and went under by 1-6 to 0-14, before making the trip to Drumconrath where the home team won their first game since May of 2009 thanks to a 2-6 to 0-8 triumph. That was followed by an away assignment against Bective who shaded the verdict on a 1-8 to 0-9 score line.
The Junior Championship draw had presented St Brigid's with a section which also included three second string teams in Donaghmore/Ashbourne, Summerhill and Simonstown Gaels, as well as Meath Hill and perennial title contenders Dunsany. Group C appeared to offer plenty of opportunities to pick up points in the quest for a place in the knockout stages, but those two early losses proved very damaging.
Walterstown provided the venue for the championship opener against a strong Donaghmore/Ashbourne team. The first half offered much hope for St Brigid's, but that all changed in the second period which the winners dominated to a large extent.
Fergal Hennessy found the net twice in that opening period to boost the Ballinacree men to a 2-5 to 1-6 lead at the interval, but Donaghmore/Ashbourne took over to such an extent that they won the second half by 2-9 to 0-5. Hennessy finished as the game's top scorer with a very useful haul of 2-3 to his name, but that was hardly of much consolation as the Dublin border outfit won convincingly by 3-15 to 2-10.
A second round meeting with Summerhill at Athboy seemed to offer a realistic chance to bounce back with a victory which would reignite their qualification challenge, but that's not how it worked out as the south county team won by 3-5 to 1-9. St Brigid's again led at the break, this time by 0-5 to 1-1, but the 'Hill added two more goals in the second period which helped them to shade the verdict by a couple of points. The defeat represented a massive blow to the quarter-final dream.
Simonstown, the remaining second string team in the group, were next up at Kilmainham where St Brigid's earned a much needed victory. It was all to play for at half-time when the winners led by 0-5 to 0-4, but when Hennessy found the net from the penalty spot early in the second period they were on the road to success.
Brian Briody, who started at full-back, notched the second goal in a 2-9 to 0-8 victory and it was back to Kilmainham for a fourth round meeting with Meath Hill. This was a very close contest and the Hill must surely have thought that they had secured a share of the spoils when they scored an equalising point in injury time.
However, St Brigid's had the final say when they notched the winning point as they triumphed by the minimum margin (1-11 to 0-13). AJ Gilsenan, who was their leading marksman with 1-2, Killian Kiernan and Jerome Hussey proved particularly effective.
The win meant that the Ballinacree men had moved onto four group points. At that stage Dunsany had secured their ticket to the knockout stages yet again with a maximum haul of eight, followed by Donaghmore/Ashbourne on six. Like St Brigid's, Meath Hill were on four points, but with a marginally better score difference, Summerhill had two and Simonstown were at the bottom of the pile after losing all their games.
High-flying Dunsany must have felt relaxed and free of any pressure heading into their last group game against the Ballinacree side at Athboy, but this proved to be another tight contest in which St Brigid's lost out despite scoring three goals. Dunsany were more adept at kicking points and their 1-13 to 3-5 victory meant that they had a 100 per cent winning record at the head of the section.
Donaghmore/Ashbourne filled the other quarter-final position on eight points, but St Brigid's were left to rue their poor start to the championship which left them playing an unsuccessful game of catch-up. A tally of just four points from a possible 10 was never going to be sufficient to get them into the mix for a qualification berth.
But as junior captain Peter Moore explained, they were badly hit by the loss of players.
"We had four long-term injuries going into the year, with Tomas Briody, Peter Skelly, Ian Browne and Oliver Timmins out," he said. "Emigration was also a factor and we lost two lads at the start of the year - Ryan Tighe and Dermot Mullally. They were big setbacks, with six or seven gone before we even started.
"As a result, we failed to get going in the league. We lost three games in the league before the championship started. We were unlucky in two of them. I suppose the inexperience of some of our players was a factor.
"We lost to Donaghmore/Ashbourne in our first championship game. We got them too early. They were at their strongest then. Losing to Summerhill in the second round was a bitter blow, a hard one to swallow. But we started to take shape after that and the team started to settle into positions. We improved as the championship went on.
"We beat Simonstown in the third round. It was the second year in-a-row that we beat them in the championship. We then beat Meath Hill in a tight game. We just squeezed it out. Going into the last round against Dunsany our score difference wasn't favourable and we needed to win and for other results to go our way. We ran them close. They beat us by a couple of points."
This year's captain was hoping for a bit more luck as he fast-forwarded to 2012.
"We need a clean bill of health," he added. "This year we lost other players through injuries and emigration mid-season. It's hard to replace bodies in a small club. You would be hoping to get out of the group and take it from there."
Great double success for Inny Gaels youngsters
The valuable work being carried out towards the promotion of football in the Inny Gaels set-up was again demonstrated during 2011 when they achieved the Under-14 Division 3 championship and league double. This was a brilliant follow-on to the double success of the under-12 panel last year and a fitting reward for the hard work put into achieving it.
The first leg of the under-14 double came courtesy of a thrilling victory over Blackhall Gaels in the league final which went to extra-time. Both teams scored three goals, but it was significant that Inny Gaels tallied more points than the opposition and that helped them to a 3-15 to 3-12 success.
These were two evenly matched sides which were locked together on 2-10 each at the end of normal time, but Inny Gaels just did enough in extra-time to shade the verdict. Their goals were scored by Joseph Blake, Shane Barkey and Sean Reilly, all of whom finished with an impressive personal contribution of 1-3. Dylan Tighe also kept the scoreboard operator busy as he rowed in with five very valuable points.
The victorious Inny Gaels team which brought up the opening leg of the double was: C Smith; J Flynn, B O'Reilly; A Clarke, A Geraghty, C Gibney; K Gilsenan (0-1), A Kiernan; S Reilly (1-3), J Blake (1-3), D Gibney; S Barkey (1-3), D Tighe (0-5). Sub - S Gibney for D Gibney.
The big aim for all concerned after that thrilling triumph was to complete the double and it was achieved a couple of weeks later when Inny Gaels secured a double scores (4-10 to 2-5) win over neighbours Oldcastle in the championship final. There was no extra-time drama on this occasion, but it still took a strong performance to leave such a decisive margin between the teams at the end.
Oldcastle, playing with the advantage of the strong wind, made the more impressive opening to the decider and pushed into a very useful looking lead at 2-3 to 0-1. However, Inny Gaels recovered well and by the change of ends they had cut the deficit to only two points (1-5 to 2-4).
The concession of another goal early in the second period didn't aid the Inny Gaels' cause, but they were in determined mood with the dream of the double in their minds. Steadily they brought the deficit down, took command thanks to some fine football and went on to win comfortably in the end.
This was an impressive all-round team performance from the Inny Gaels players, with Joseph Blake leading the scoring on 1-4. Dylan Tighe was next highest marksman with 1-2 and Jordan Lynch and Shane Gibney notched a goal each.
It was a campaign which certainly augurs well for the future and which brought great joy and satisfaction to all concerned.
The Inny Gaels team which completed the big double was: C Smith; J Flynn, B Reilly, A Clarke; C Gibney, K Gilsenan (0-1), D Gibney; A Geraghty, A Kiernan; S Reilly (0-1), J Blake (1-4), D Tighe (1-2); J Lynch (1-0), S Barkey (0-2), S Gibney (1-0). Subs - TJ Tully, K O'Growney, C Boylan, A Moore, T Meehan, A Segarty.
Plenty of underage silverware for Inny Gaels
The future looks bright for all associated with the Inny Gaels club as they impressed on their way to honours at U14 and U13 level.
At the start of May the U14's defeated Blackhall Gaels after extra time, by 3-15 to 3-12, in a fantastic advertisement for underage football.
Having finished level at 2-10 each at the end of normal time Inny Gaels won this final after a very exciting and close contest against Blackhall Gaels.
Inny Gaels - C Smith, J Flynn, B O'Reilly, A Clarke, A Geraghty, C Gibney, K Gilsenan 1-1, A Kiernan, S Reilly 1-3, J Blake 1-3, D Gibney, S Barkey 1-3, D Tighe 0-5. Subs: S. Gibney for D Gibney, A Segarty, K O'Growney, A Moore, Turlough, C Boylan
In November, a large number of the same players landed U13 Division 4 honours as they gunned down Oldcastle in the final, 9-11 to 4-9.
Oldcastle got off to the better start and were soon 1-1 to no score ahead in the early stages of the first half. However, Inny Gaels soon replied and despite being marked by two defenders, full forward Joseph Blake hit a hat trick of goals to steer the Moylagh/St Brigids combination into a lead that they never surrendered for the remainder of the match.
Oldcastle added a further five first half points while Inny Gaels added a further 1-3 with Kevin Gilsenan (1-1) and two Dylan Tighe points to leave the half time score of 4-4 to 1-6 in favour of Inny Gaels.
Inny Gaels pressed on in the second half and were the better side in most positions playing some lovely direct football. However, Oldcastle had a purple patch and looked like they might pull themselves back into contention with three goals. However with second half substitute Ben O'Reilly bringing his influence to bear on the game adding 2-2 to the Inny Gaels account along with goals from Darragh Moore, Dylan Tighe and Joseph Blake, Inny Gaels always had too much for their town neighbours. Three points from Joseph Blake and one each from Kevin Gilsenan and Dylan Tighe completed the scoring for Inny Gaels who ran out winners on a final score line of 9-11 to 4-9.
Inny Gaels - C Boylan, R. McGivney, C. Smith, TJ Tully, H. O'Reilly, D Gibney, J Doyle, K Gilsenan 1-2, S Reilly, M Corrigan, D. Tighe 1-3, S. Gibney, D. Moore 1-0, J Blake 4-4, D Scully. Subs: B. O'Reilly 2-2, A. Moore, C. Gibney, S. Moore, K. Tully, O. Smith Tweet
