Cookstown Minors defeat Eglish in a cracking semi-final

Cookstown 3-12   Eglish 3-10

THESE two sides had been waiting since September 1 to play this Minor Championship semi-final but it proved to be well worth the wait as they served up a cracking encounter at Paddy Cullen Park as Cookstown qualified for the decider.

The Father Rocks simply blew their opponents away in the opening quarter as they surged a dozen points clear, but league champions Eglish produced an inspired comeback with Cookstown holding on to set up a decider shootout against Donaghmore.

Both sides fielded without the services of key players due to injury but this didn’t take away from the football that was served up.

Cookstown couldn’t have wished for a better start to the game as Lorcan McMurray opened the scoring from a mark and when they gained possession again from the next kickout, Conall Sheehy fired to the net and there was only a minute gone.

In the seventh minute, Karl McGuigan teed up Keegan Hampsey for their second goal and defenders Karl Wawreynkiewicz and Michael Lennon followed that score up with outstanding points from play. It was all Cookstown at this stage with Eglish having no answer to their attacking play, and a brace from Michael McElhatton coupled with a McMurray free saw the lead grow to 12 by the 18th minute.

Eglish were in big trouble but they hit back when a quick sideline ball found Lorcan Hegarty who fired into the back of the net. Ronan Bradley then weighed in with two points from play for Eglish ether side of a McMurray free for Cookstown to leave the scoreboard reading 2-7 to 1-2 at the short whistle.

Eglish picked up were they had left off on the restart as they narrowed the gap further thanks to points from Caolan Donaghy and Conor Holmes, but that was undone when McMurray showed great composure to fire to the net in the 37th minute.

Eglish, though, were beginning to get on top around midfield and they got back into contention when Cormac Toye was in the right place at the right time to score a goal after Cookstown keeper Sean Og Quinn had saved from Hegarty. McElhatton responded but it was Eglish who now had all the momentum and they reeled off three unanswered points to leave just three between the sides with eight minutes left to play.

McMurray and Hegarty swapped points as did McGuigan and Nathan Horsfield and it was clear that this game was going right to the wire.

Eglish continued to press forward and when Turlough Muldoon received the ball he stepped inside his marker to unleash an unstoppable shot to level the game with a minute to go. Despite that setback, Cookstown engineered a mark deep into injury time and Hampsey wonderfully curled it over the bar before man of the match McMurray added the insurance point from a free.

THE SCORERS

Cookstown

Lorcan McMurray 1-5 (3F, 1M), Keegan Hampsey 1-1 (1M), Michael McElhatton 0-3 (1F, 1M), Conall Sheehy 1-0, Karol Wawreynkiewicz 0-1, Karl McGuigan 0-1, Michael Lennon 0-1.

Eglish

Ronan Bradley 0-5 (2F), Lorcan Hegarty 1-1, Turlough Muldoon 1-0, Cormac Toye 1-0, Ross Daly 0-1, Nathan Horsfield 0-1, Caolan Donaghy 0-1, Conor Holmes 0-1.

Referee: Cathal Bell, Killeeshil.