Eglish Under-14s complete the Grade 2 double

Eglish 7-11 Fintona 4-13

EGLISH justified their favourites tag to complete the Grade 2 Under-14 double when they had seven points to spare over a superb Fintona side in the League Final at Galbally on Saturday afternoon.

It was a game that lived up to all expectations with football the real winner and Fintona can count themselves unlucky to lose by a seven point margin. Eglish had led by nine points early in the second period but the Pearses fought back to level matters with six minutes to go only for the winners to finish strongly to take the title.

The sides shared the opening eight points of the contest with points coming from the likes of Ryan McGillion, Shay Donnelly, Daniel Colton and Ethan McCarron.

Eglish full forward Daithi Corrigan got the first goal of the game and two minutes later Seimi Muldoon found the net as well. It was a good spell for Eglish who added points from Donnelly, Ben McElvaney and Muldoon but a Colton brace reduced the deficit to 2-7 to 0-7 at the interval.

McElvaney opened the second half scoring but Eglish had keeper Matthew Daly to thank for a couple of brilliant saves. In the 35^th minute Conan Hughes got a third Eglish goal and it looked as though they would push on from here. Fintona responded with a McGillion goal but in the next attack McCarron cancelled that out at the other end of the field.

McGillion though scored another goal either side of two points from Lorcan Gallen before the former completed his hattrick when he converted a penalty. Matthew McCormack and Odhran Goodman exchanged points before Eglish keeper Daly made another wonderful save. With six minutes left to play it was all square, 4-9 to 3-12, after Gallen had split the posts.

The key moment in the game then arrived when a shot for a point from McCarron came bac off the post and Muldoon was in the right place at the right time to send the rebound to the net. Thomas Colton responded with a Fintona point but then two quickfire goals from Donnelly and Muldoon won it for Eglish.

Eglish scorers – Seimi Muldoon 3-2, Ethan McCarron 1-3 (1F), Shay Donnelly 1-2 (1F), Daithi Corrigan 1-1, Conan Hughes 1-0, Ben McElvaney 0-2, Matthew McCormack 0-1

Fintona scorers – Ryan McGillion 3-4, Odhran Goodman 1-1, Lorcan Gallen 0-3, Daniel Colton 0-3 (2F), Pearse Starrs 0-1, Thomas Colton 0-1

Referee – Stephen McBride, Drumquin