Junior Football Championship – Knock-Out
St Malachy’s held off a determined second half fightback by Laochra Loch Lao at Cherryvale on Saturday evening to seal their place in the semi-final of the Junior Football Championship. In a no quarter ask or given game both teams gave it their all in perfect weather conditions. St Malachy’s appeared to be cruising when they opened a five point gap midway through the second half, but Laochra Loch Lao fought their way back in the final quarter to close to within three points, but despite creating several good scoring chances that was as close as they would get and the Mal’s excellent free taker Criostoir Devlin sealed the win with an injury time point.
Devlin had struck three of the first four points of the game, two of them from 45s, to put his team 0-03 to 0-01 ahead midway through the opening half, but Oisin Crawford and Kevin Devine brought Laochra Loch Lao back into contention, but Ciaran Vernon struck a telling blow for the Mal’s when he drove a low shot to the Laochra net following a goalmouth scramble.
1-05 to 0-4 ahead at the break Laochra Loch Lao closed the gap to three with an Oisin Crawford point two minutes after the restart, but points from Shea Lynch and Stephen Carson strengthened St Malachy’s position midway through the half. Laochra’s Kevin Devine and St Malachy’s Ciaran Vernon exchanged points to keep the gap at five, but St Malachy’s scoring dried up and despite losing a player to a black card Laochra Loch Lao started to close the gap.
Left half back Dubaltach Mac Crabhagain sent over a very good point for Laochra and on 52 minutes they grabbed another to leave just three between the sides. The kept up the pressure but missed a few good chances to close further, including two twenty metre frees, and St Malachy’s Ciara Devlin finished the contest when he sent over another free in injury time to secure a semi-final spot.
FOR MORE PICS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW