Left: Lavey’s Thomas Donnelly who scored 1-6 in his side’s win over Galbally, sends over another point. Right: Angela Callan, Bank of Ireland, Antrim presents the man of the match award to Lavey’s Thomas Donnelly.
Bank of Ireland-Paddy McLarnon Cup
U21 Club Football Tournament Quarter-Final
Erins Own, Lavey (Derry) 2-7 Galbally (Tyrone) 0-5
Sunday January 14
By Brendan McTaggart
After 20 minutes of the last of the weekends quarter finals, it looked like Galbally would be booking their spot in the last four of the Bank of Ireland Paddy McLarnon Cup. The Tyrone men started the match strongly and despite yielding possession to Lavey for long periods, the Derry champions couldn’t make any incision in the Galbally defence. All it took was a little bit of magic. Step forward Thomas Donnelly. The Lavey forward put in a man of the match performance finishing the quarter-final with 1-6 and laying the first goal on a plate for Shea Downey in an outstanding display ensuring the Derry champions progress to the semi-finals in their first outing at the U21 tournament. It was an incredibly efficient defensive performance from the Erin’s Own men who didn’t concede a score from a free throughout the hour and just one point in the second half.
The Tyrone men opened the scoring with two points from Liam Rafferty and Ronan Nugent in the opening 10 minutes in a start to the quarter-final that resembled a chess match. Both sides feeling their way into the match, pressing and probing for gaps. Hugh McGurk was sweeping for Lavey and didn’t put a foot wrong in the entirety of the first half. If Galbally looked for Daniel Kerr or Conor Donaghy with early ball, the Lavey man was in the way with a superb display of sweeping. Anything he might have missed, ‘keeper Eoin Mulholland was dealing with comfortably with his own version of a ‘sweeper keeper’. Lavey dropped Shea Downey into the midfield to help his side gain footing but Conor Quinn remained his shadow as Galbally pushed up on the Lavey defence at every opportunity.
Fintan Bradley opened the scoring for Erin’s Own in the 14th minute to kickstart their Paddy McLarnon Cup challenge and while Mark Donnelly responded soon after to maintain Galbally’s dominance, it was Lavey who would land the first telling blow of the quarter-final.
Collecting a long ball from Aidan Toner, Donnelly laid an inch perfect pass into the path of the onrushing Shea Downey. The Lavey man showed great composure to place his shot beyond the diving Enda McAleer to give Lavey the lead for the first time in the contest.
Further scores from Donnelly (two) increased the Lavey lead to three points before a ’45 from Cormac Donnelly ended the scoring for the half with the Derry champions leading 1-3 to 0-4 at the interval.
Like the first half, Galbally made all the early running after the restart. They were making light of playing into the elements and while Lavey struggled to relieve the pressure off their defence, they were tackling and making life difficult for the Pearse’s, starving them of time on the ball with the Toner’s and Eamon McGill superb.
A superb Liam Rafferty point opened the second half scoring, the Galbally forward with his second of the match. The pivotal point of the match came in the 43rd minute with Lavey ‘keeper Eoin Mulholland pulling off an incredible double save to deny first Rafferty then Ronan Nugent. Tipping the first effort onto the bar before bravely diving at Nugent’s feet to smother his rebound.
Lavey went straight up the pitch and carved an opening themselves, Shea Downey with a piece of individual brilliance to carve open the opportunity before drilling his effort to the foot of the upright but it was a sign that the Derry men had fought off the Galbally revival. A brace of frees from Donnelly opened a four point lead with ten minutes remaining.
Galbally looked to their bench for answers with Shea Hurson, Kieran Holland and Darragh Traynor introduced in an attempt to breakdown the solid Lavey defence but they had no joy as Lavey continued to counter at will. Two further Donnelly scores (one free) put them in the driving seat with time running out and with the Galbally defence stretched, Lavey produced one more goal opportunity. Downey with the surging run through the heart of the Pearse’s defence before being hauled down in the square by Darragh Corrigan. Donnelly took the resulting spot kick, sending McAleer the wrong way in the Galbally goals and adding further gloss to a near perfect Lavey performance.
TEAMS
Lavey: Eoin Mulholland; Aidan Toner; Conor Mulholland; Kevin Toner; Ruairi McGurk; Eamon McGill; James Crawford; Brendan Laverty; Dara McPeake; Oran Downey; Hugh McGurk; Peter Rafferty; Thomas Donnelly; Shea Downey; Fintan Bradley
Subs: Nathan Scullion for E McGill (inj); Ciaran Henry for H McGurk (inj)
Galbally: Enda McAleer; Darragh Corrigan; Conor Quinn; Marc Lennon; Conor Donnelly; Seamus Og Mulgrew; Dylan McVeigh; Enda McGarrity; Cormac Donnelly; Caoimhin Quinn; Ronan Nugent; Mark Donnelly; Conor Donaghy; Daniel Kerr; Liam Rafferty
Subs: Kieran Holland for D McVeigh (40 mins); Darragh Traynor for C Donaghy (40 mins); Shea Hurson for C Donnelly (52 mins)
SCORERS
Lavey: Thomas Donnelly 1-6, 4 f’s 1-00 pen); Shea Downey 1-00; Fintan Bradley 0-1
Galbally: Liam Rafferty 0-2; Mark Donnelly 0-1; Ronan Nugent 0-1; Cormac Donnelly 0-1
Referee: Eamon McAuley (Cargin)
Kickham’s Creggan committee member,Michelle Bradley presents a cheque to paddy McIlwaine who received it on behalf of the ‘Saffron Gael’ at the Bank of Ireland-Paddy McLarnon U21 tournament quarter-finals in Creggan on Sunday.