Connacht Gold Intermediate Football Championship – Semi Final

Saturday 9^th October

Venue: Markievicz Park

Referee: John Griffin

St Farnan’s 1-15

Easkey 1-14

(After Extra Time)

St Farnan’s emerged winners of this hotly contested and very entertaining West Sligo derby in which extra time was needed to split the 2 teams. Aided by the breeze in the 1^st half, St Farnan’s made the faster start to the game and a Stephen Mulligan point opened the scoring before 2 frees from Paddy O’Connor gave St Farnan’s a 3 point lead with 5min played. Another point from Paddy O’Connor this time from a mark increased St Farnan’s lead before Easkey got off the mark from a Mikey Gordon free with 9mins played. Another Paddy O’Connor free which he won himself followed shortly after by points from Stephen Mulligan and a long range effort from Shane O’Brien gave St Farnan’s a commanding 0-07 to 0-01 lead at the 1st water break. 2 frees from Joe McHugh, followed by a Mikey Gordon free start to claw Easkey back into the game before another Joe McHugh free left only 2 point between the sides meanwhile St Farnan’s shooting accuracy started to let them down with 4 consecutive wides, leaving half time score 0-07 to 0-05.

St Farnan’s again were the team to start the half better with 2 good points from Finnian Cawley and Shane O’Brien increased the lead. Easkey’s response was immediate with Daniel Rolston finishing the ball to the net after Kevin Duffy bravely managed to flick the ball across to him and Easkey were soon level with Daniel Rolston again the scorer this time with a great point from out near the sideline. Another Joe McHugh point with the outside of the boot put the Sea Blues into the lead for the 1^st time in the game with 40mins played. However their lead didn’t last too long with Paddy O’Connor kicking a nice score to bring the teams back level and another Paddy O’Connor free just before the water break gave St Farnan’s a 1 point lead going into the final quarter. And it was Paddy O’Connor again who got first score of the final quarter from play followed by a free from Eamonn Kilgannon from 40m to increase St Farnan’s lead to 3 points going into injury time. This game was far from over however as Easkey started to throw everything at St Farnan’s and frees from Mikey Gordon and Joe McHugh brought it back to a 1 point game before a Brendan McGrath equalizer with the outside of the left 6mins into injury time, which was the last kick of the game which meant this game finished level at the end of ordinary time St Farnan’s 0-13 to Easkey 1-10.

Easkey were fast out of the blocks at the start of Extra Time with a Joe McHugh point after only 18 seconds gave Easkey the lead before a Finnian Cawley free restored parity. A Jonathon Conway point with the outside of the point restored Easkey’s lead but St Farnan’s replied instantly with a point from Iarlaith Connor. An Andrew Kilcullen point just before half time in Extra time gave Easkey the lead once more but it could have easily been a goal had it not been for a great block from St Farnan’s full back Matthew Lang to deflect the ball over the bar, leaving it Easkey 1-13 to St Farnan’s 0-15 at the break.  The decisive score of the game came 5mins into the 2^nd half of extra time as hand pass from Finnian Cawley to Iarlaith Connor was knocked away by finger tips from Eoighan Rua McGowan but Iarlaith Connor pulled off an audacious effort off the ground to lob the Easkey keeper Shane Kilgannon and go into the top corner of the net, an effort which looked like he was maybe trying for a point. Jonathon Conway responded straight away for Easkey to bring it back to a 1 point game but this was to be the last score of the game with St Farnan’s winning by the bare minimum, St Farnan’s 1-15 to Easkey 1-14. St Farnan’s now progress to the final in 2 weeks where they will take on St Molaise Gaels where they will hope to reverse the 1 point loss they suffered in the group stages of the competition.

St Farnan’s: Simon Mullarkey, Shane Molloy, Matthew Lang, Mark, Devaney, David Hallinan Eamonn Kilgannon (0-01, 1f), Finnian Cawley (0-02, 1f), Gavin Connolly, Kevin McGree, Shane O’Brien (0-02), Ciaran O’Connor, Martin Mulligan, Stephen Mulligan (0-2), Paddy O’Connor (0-07, 4f), Conor Gordon; Subs used: Iarlaith Connor (1-01), Thomas Cawley, Darragh, Gillen

Easkey: Shane Kilgannon, Niall Kilcullen, Ian, Barrett, Noel McGuire, Bernard Feeney, Eanna Moylan, Rory McHugh, Mikey Gordon (0-03, 3f), Eugene Mullen, Jack Scott, Joe McHugh (0-06, 4f), Kevin Duffy, Andrew Kilcullen (0-01), Daniel Rolston (1-01), Dylan Sloyan; Subs used: Fionn Moylan, Eoighan Rua McGowan, Jonathon Conway (0-02), Brendan McGrath (0-01), Ciaran Montague, Hayden Gilroy