OB Construction Intermediate Football Champioinship
Glenravel 1-16 St Pauls 2-05
They say familiarity breeds contempt. Well St Pauls GAC Club would be justified in feeling some level of contempt towards Glenravel GAC Club having faced defeat by them three times in six days across hurling, camogie and football. On this occasion it was the big ball game and though the scoreline looks impressive for the green and whites it certainly did not all go their way. Two goals either side of half time brought St Paul’s right back into the game but they failed to build on that momentum and Con Magees ran out comfortable enough winners in the end.
Eamon Fyfe and Seán Mac Corraidh exchanged points in the opening minutes but that was followed by a litany of mistakes by either side courtesy of a slippery ball and greasy surface brought about by some heavy rain showers pre throw in. Fyfe again and David Higgins gave Glenravel a three point lead at the end of the first quarter but that was reduced to two when St Paul’s Patrick Doyle put over a nice point with ten minutes of the half remaining. Eoin Hynds and Fyfe increased Glenravel’s lead before Patrick Doyle pulled one back for the Belfast men. In the closing stages of the first half Glenravel started to dominate possession and went on to score four unanswered points to stretch their lead to seven points 0-10 to 0-03. A mix up in Glenravel’s defence allowed midfielder Colm McLarnon to ghost in behind and he blasted to the roof of the net much to the delight of the city spectators. Cahal Hynds fisted the final score of the first half so the teams retired with Glenravel leading 0-11 to 1-03.
Glenravel needed to suppress their opponents upward momentum at the start of the second half but that went badly wrong when Liam McLarnon pounced for a goal two minutes after the restart to reduce the gap to two points and it looked like we had a game on our hands. However it would take St Pauls another twenty five minutes before registering their next score. Glenravel responded with a point and there then followed a sixteen minute hiatus when neither side could raise a flag so with ten minutes of the game remaining Con Magees held a slender lead 0-12 to 2-03. However that was all to change in the next five minutes when Cormac McKeown goaled and that was followed up by points from Callum Higgins (0-02) and Declan Traynor to increase Glenravel’s lead to 1-15 to 2-03 and only five minutes normal time remaining. St Pauls went route one with long balls to try and conjure up a goal but to no avail. They did manage two frees from Patrick Doyle, their only second half scores after the second minute goal and so it was left to an Eoin Hynds free to bring the game to conclusion and victory for Glenravel 1-16 to 2-05.
The win secures qualification to the quarter finals for Con Magees while St Paul’s must travel to Davitt Park in the final game in a winner takes all match in two weeks time.
