Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh and St. Enda’s will get the weekend football championship action under way when they meet in the final of the Minor B Football Championship. The combination side have been the outstanding team in the competition to date and will start Saturday’s final as favourites.
They opened this year’s campaign with a win away to Moneyglass and had seven points to spare over the St. Ergnat’s down at Marrion Hill. They were on the road again in the next round and continued to impress when they defeated a good St. Joseph’s side at Chapel Hill, running out winners by 3-8 to 1-9 and people were starting to sit up and take notice.
In the semi-final Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh closed out a tight game and booked a place in the decider against St Enda’s after a 1-12-1-10 win over Rossa at Shaws Road.
Ciaran Donnelly claimed five of his side’s seven first-half scores with all coming from the placed ball as the league champions ran into a 0-07-0-03 lead at the break.
Rossa battled back and levelled through Liam Carr’s goal just before the midway point in the second-half, only for Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh to instantly hit back through a Geariod McKernan goal.
Carr was denied a second major through menacing full-back Johnny McKenna and had to make do with a couple of late points as Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh hung on to book a place in the final despite losing Eoin Trainor-O’Neill to a late red-card.
Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh v Rossa: N Mooney, A Robinson, J McKenna, R Dixon (0-01), K Trainor-O’Neill, D Cahill, G Sloan, C Heaney (0-01), C Donnelly (0-06, 0-04f), E Trainor-O’Neill (0-02), T Scannell (0-02), G McKernan (1-00), A Dempster, O Cordner, J McKee. Subs: M Brady for A Dempster (HT); G Power for R Dixon (57 – black card substitution); G McKernan for O Deevy (59) G McKernan for J McKee (60+2 mins – black card substitution).
St. Enda’s have had an easier passage to Saturday’s final and received a bye against St. John’s in the quarter-final before travelling to Dreen where they didn’t have it all their own way but still proved too good in the end for a battling Rasharkin, running out 2-15 to 1-12 winners.
The sides met in the league back on the 2nd July at Enright Park and on that occasion only a point separated them, Gaeil an tSeibhe Dhuibh winning by 3-11 to 3-10. That was the only game that the Glengormley side lost as they finished second to Saturday’s opponents and they will certainly not be overawed going into tomorrow’s final.
This one has all the makings of a tight final and could go either way. The action gets under way at 5-00pm with Eamon Hamill the man in charge and at the time of writing there had been no venue announced for the fixture.