Fitzgibbon Cup: Mary Immaculate through to final

March 01, 2013

Waterford's Eoin Murphy and Colm Galvin of Mary Immaculate ©INPHO/James Crombie
Mary Immaculate defeated WIT by 1-17 to 1-15 in the first of today's Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals.

There was a thrilling denouement at Carnmore as the Limerick college took the spoils with injury-time scores from substitute Conor Cooney - who did play after all! - and Luke O'Farrell just when the match looked destined for injury time.

There was no shortage of drama in the early stages either as the winners had Limerick star Declan Hannon sent off, while WIT's Eoin Murphy subsequently saw his penalty saved.

But the 14 men refused to let their heads drop and a John Conlon goal helped them take a 1-7 to 0-8 half-time lead, with Waterford pair Pauric Mahony and Jake Dillon keeping WIT in touch.

Clare ace Conlon added the first point after the restart and Eamon Cregan pulled his ace by bringing on St Thomas' and Galway star Cooney minutes later.

Sean Curran stretched the gap to six points, 1-11 to 0-8, and it was soon 1-13 to 0-9.

But Tipperary man Michael Sheedy's goal brought the losers right back into it - 1-14 to 1-12 - and they also clipped over three of the next four points to leave the sides level at the end of normal time, O'Farrell and Mahony sharing the last two points.

Mary Immaculate then pounced in added time for a historic win.

Mary Immaculate - S Nolan; C Fennessy, R O'Donnell, A Ryan; J Wall, D Hannon, E Hogan; K Fitzgerald, C Galvin (0-1); S Curran (0-1), B O'Halloran (0-1), N O'Meara; W Hickey, J Conlon (1-9), L O'Farrell (0-4). Subs: C Cooney (0-1) for Fitzgerald, L Considine for Hickey.

WIT - S O'Keeffe; S O'Keeffe, L Lawlor, N Connors; C Haugh, W Hutchinson, T Hamill; S Roche, H Kehoe; P Mahony (0-6), M Sheedy (1-1), E Murphy (0-3); M O'Neill (0-1), J Dillon (0-3), G O'Brien (0-1). Subs: S Murphy for Connors, A McGrath for S O'Keeffe, M Power for Kehoe, L McGrath for Murphy.

Referee - J McGrath.

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