Senior Reserve Shield Final
Aldergrove 0-04 Glenravel 1-14
Glenravel’s only two defeats this season have been at the hands of tonight’s opponents Aldergrove. So accordingly they would have been keen to avenge those defeats in tonight’s Reserve Shield semi-final, which they did with some aplomb. Aldergrove’s only point in the first half came in the fifth minute, and in fact it would take them another thirty five minutes before they were able to add to that total by which time their opponents were out of sight. Glenravel played up the hill in the first half and would have been happy to go in at half-time on a five points to one point lead. Aldergrove would have needed a good start to the second half but four points on the bounce in the opening ten minutes of that half left Glenravel leading nine points to one and surely at that stage home and hosed.
Aldergrove would’ve felt aggrieved to have been reduced to 14 men with five minutes of the first half remaining for what looked like an innocuous enough foul, but in truth, they never threatened their opponents on the night and came up well short at the end of the sixty minutes. The did have plenty of possession but their shooting let them down badly.
Aiden O’Donnell opened the scoring from a free in the first minute and Daniel McQuillan quickly doubled that lead before Connor Morris pulled one back from a free for Aldergrove. That was with five minutes played and little did the Aldergrove supporters know it would be another 35 minutes before they would get on the scoreboard again. Cormac McKeown, Daragh, Donaghy, and Aiden O’Donnell added to the Glenravel total to put them into a 0-05 to 0-01 lead going into the second half.
In the opening minute of that new half, Cormac McKeown burst through the Aldergrove rearguard to score a point and three minutes later he unleashed a rasper which just grazed the top of the crossbar and went over for a point. A few inches lower and it would have surely lifted the net. Joe Martin and Cormac McKeown would follow up again and with 10 minutes of the second have gone, Glenravel led 0-9 to 0-1.
Connor Morris pulled a point back for Aldergrove on the 41st minute, but that was then followed by two wonderful scores from deep on the left-hand side by Aiden O’Donnell. Cormac McKeown popped up with a point on 46 minutes and that was followed by a Daragh Donaghy point on to leave the score 0-13 to 0-02.
Glenravel were dominating all over the pitch and the introduction of Sean McKay, who goaled soon after his introduction, to put the match out of reach of their opponents. Sean Patrick Fay would put over the Aldergrove third point with nine minutes of the game remaining, and the final two scores of the game came from Cormac McKeown from Glenravel to leave the final score, 1-14 to 0-04 in favour of the Glensmen. They will now face Dunloy, conquerers of Ardoyne, in the final on Wednesday, September 6.
ALDERGROVE
Christopher Taggart, David Aiken, Michael McCarthy, Ronan Wilkinson, Conleth O’Toole, Aiden Irvine, Corey Foggarty, Aaron O’Connor, Conleith O’Toole, Sean Patrick Fay, Conor Morris, Ryan MCarthy, Cormac McGarry, Kian Jones, Aidan Reilly.
CON MAGEES
Jude Scullion, Adam Campbell, Chris Laverty, Conor McQuillan, Joe Martin, Aidan McKenna, Declan McAuley, Martin McCarry, Senan Black, Cormac McKeown, Daniel McQuillan, Conleth O’Loan, Sean Paul McKenna, Darragh Donaghy, Aidan O’Donnell.
SUBS – Eamon Ward, Sean McKay, Alex Davis, Adam-james Asher, Joe Scullion, Ethan McNeill, Fiontann Hodgson, Fergus Donaghy, Shea O’Brien
REFEREE – Piarais McCaffrey (St Gall’s)
