Duleek Bellewstown 1-13  Kilbride 2-9

Duleek Bellewstown claimed the Coolrite Refrigeration  U20  ‘A’ Football Championship for the first time since 2009 in dramatic fashion on a crisp Saturday afternoon in Ashbourne. And truth be told it was the blustery wind that turned out to be our saviour when with the last kick of the game Kilbride had the opportunity to send the game into extra time with a free kick. And when it looked to be on target and heading over the bar the blustery wind  did it’s magic and the ball was directed to the wrong side for Kilbride and the right side for us .
It was a dramatic end to tense and excellent game of football in which both sides had opportunities to finish off their opponents but the never say die attitude kept the game in the melting pot for the hour.

Defending the town goals and facing a diagonal wind Duleek Bellewstown opened the scoring in the first minute with a Craig Moore point after good work from Dylan Collins on the right hand side freed Moore up on the overlap and he pointed with ease. 
Kilbride, playing with wind, and it must be said with more purpose, then stormed into the game and with strong tackling forcing turnovers of Duleek Bellewstown possession they processed to open up a 1-5 to 0-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. Playing quick ball to their inside forwards they were causing all sorts of problems for the Duleek Bellewstown defense and appeared at that stage to be on the way to a comfortable victory.

At the end of that quarter Duleek Bellewstown then decided that they were in a game and started to put some combination play together.  First an Oisin Miland surge was stopped illegally and Dylan Collins pointed the resultant free. Then the highlight of the first half came in the space of 5 minutes  around the 20th ; And both came from Sean Courtney. After another Miland run on the right resulted in a free about 10 yds in from the sideline and about 40 yds from the goal  and Courtney stepped up and to the delight of the support and off  the outside of his right foot he arrowed the ball over the black spot for a morale boosting score.  Then  three minutes later and after some good interchange play drew another foul in the roughly the  same area of the pitch and just to show that the first was no fluke and that lightning can strike he did the same again  and suddenly the gap was getting manageable with ten minutes left in the half

The belief was now in the team and they began to hoover up the breaking ball around the middle and put the Kilbride backline under pressure A point from play from Brian Duffy in the 24thminute then left just a a single score in the game; Kilbride responded but tigerish defending by Cillian Kirwan and interceptions by Elliot Lenehan repulsed the attacks.  Dylan Collins then narrowed the gap  from a free after he himself was fouled and the final score came when a right to left cross pass was marked by Eoghan Heeney and he released Sean Courtney who was fouled and Brian Duffy stepped up to notch his second score of the day with point from the free.
So from a situation of being 7 points down after 12 minutes the dressing room beckoned with the gap down to a single point and with Duleek Bellewstown with the momentum. 

Whatever was said at the break had an immediate effect. A direct ball into the left corner was missed by the Kilbride defender and Sean Courtney spotted that Eoghan Heeney was free and his quick pass to Heeney put him in the clear and there was only going to be one outcome and Heeney made no mistake.  Direct from the Kick out Tom Bowden was released and he pointed to extend the gap to three points. Somewhat like the first half for Kilbride it then looked like that Duleek Bellewstown   were going to kick on but Kilbride had other ideas and following a series of attacks the scores were levelled when Kilbride’s centre forward hit a rasper to the right corner of the Ryan Lynch’s  net. And with another 2 minutes they went a point in front. 

Like the first half Oisin Miland ignited the Duleek Bellewstown response. After being fouled on one of his trademark charges the free kick was worked to Tom Bowden on the right and from 30 yards he drew the sides level. Then as the third quarter ended Ryan Lynch picked up possession from an  attempt for a score which had dropped short  and drove the ball down the centre where Colm Regan released Dylan Collins and again from well outside the D on the right hand side he put Duleek Bellewstown a point in front.

It was end to end stuff for the next few minutes with both sides having opportunities for scores. Then  following a move involving Tom Bowden and Eoghan Heeney  Kyle Callaghan pointed to extend the gap to two and this was immediately back to one with the conversion  of a Kilbride free and straight from a long kick out from Ryan  Lynch, Dylan Collins pointed and the lead was again at two. This was extended to three with just 5 minutes remaining when Sean Courtney pointed an easy 14  yarder after a late tackle on Alan Bowden .

But Kilbride were not finished by any means. They had reduced the gap to  two when their corner forward pointed from long range on the and as the clock turned 30 minutes the corner forward pointed a massive free from over 45 meters against the wind with plenty to spare and it was a one point game and as a well known soccer manager was often heard to say: It was ‘squeaky bum time’


A high cross field ball into the Duleek Bellewstown then flashed past the post after a contest for the ball and following a discussion between umpire and referee the outcome was a wide much to the relief of the defense, and the support in the stand . From the resulting kick out Duleek bellewstown secured the ball but when it looked like a free was about to be given the ball broke free and Kilbride started an attack under the stand side; Again a shout for a Kilbride hand ball on the ground were ignored and a Kilbride free resulted. .
The Corner forward stepped up and as the ball initially looked like it was heading over it veered right  at the last second and went wide. And with that the final whistle also came .

This was a victory borne out of teamwork and belief and in fact there was very little between the two teams. In their two games with Kilbride the aggregate scores were level with Kilbride having won the initial group game by a point.   

A big thanks you also to the support who came to the game; Once again they were the 16th man with their encouragement and support.
 And Finally well done to the management team of Colin Crosby, Paul Callaghan, Darren Heeney, Chris Woods and Cian Kelly who brought the squad together and guided them successfully to this win; 



Duleek Bellewstown: R Lynch; C Kirwan, E Lenehan, K Callaghan, C Regan , O Miland, S McCroary, T Bowden, C Moore, T McKeown, D Collins, J McGarvey, B Duffy, E Heeney; S Courtney, Subs used L O’Leary, J Hartford; A Bowden, R Duff, Panel; S Cadwell,  D Lenehan, S O’Leary, S Flaherty, K Carroll, K Miland , D Brodigan.

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