St. Patrick’s complete incredible second half comeback to claim Junior C title
Kevin Healy, who landed the match winning score, is hoisted by his St Pat's teammates after the final whistle. All Photos: Pat Ahern
A game that looked dead and buried at half-time suddenly burst into life in the last 15 minutes as four two-pointers in the final ten minutes was enough to crown St. Patrick’s champions. The Tullow side were 1-10 to 0-5 down at half-time but they came out with renewed energy in the second half and sheer determination got them across their line.
They had to try something, they were in trouble and they dug deep and found strength when they needed it most. Ballon who had looked so rampant in the first half scored nothing in the second mainly thanks to superb defensive work and dogged determination from St. Patrick’s. It was a late score in the original game between the two sides that denied Ballon the win in the first game and it was a late score that denied them in the replay too.
It can’t have helped Ballon thought that they were down to 14 men at stages in the game. Despite it being the Junior C final, the bottom division of Carlow GAA and being both of these sides second teams, Netwatch Cullen Park was almost full and the crowd was in full voice spurring their team on and were one of the louder crowds that the Carlow county grounds has seen.
The Tullow side took the lead after a minute with Eoin O’Toole firing over a free from the edge of the D before Thomas Murphy levelled. David Wilson gave Ballon the early advantage when he raised a green flag with four minutes on the clock, picking up a loose ball and finishing into the bottom right hand corner.
O’Toole fired over a second free from the right before Brian Maher cancelled it out at the other end. David Orbinski bisected the posts as his effort was palmed off the bar by the Ballon ‘keeper, going over to reduce the game to a two point game. Maher fired over a two-point free from the left hand touchline.
Maher once again raised an orange flag with a free a little further back than the first. Conor Murphy went close for Ballon but his effort was saved. O’Toole hit over a free for St. Pat’s from the left in an effort to claw back some ground.
On 20 minutes, Maher hit over another two-point free,with O’Toole pointing another free. In stoppage time, Maher hit over his fourth two-pointer to put Ballon in a commanding position going into half-time with an eight point lead.
The second half started slow and cagey as both sides cancelled each other out for large periods. There was remarkably no score until the 15th minute when Tommy Murphy raised a white flag shortly after Darragh Byrne got shown a black card for Ballon. A Kevin Healy effort bounced around the box but was eventually cleared by Ballon.
Darragh Byrne went close for Ballon but hit his effort at the ‘keeper who spilled the ball but it was cleared by the St. Patrick’s defence. A Healy free from the right was hit wide. With seven minutes to go, O’Toole fired over a two pointer free before Conor Murphy fired over a two pointer from the right touchline to bring it to a one score game with only a goal separating the two sides.
In stoppage time, Maher got a second yellow card to leave Ballon down to ten men for the final few moments. Byrne and Maher both shot wide for Ballon whilst O’Toole hit one wide for St. Pat’s. Healy tried a long range effort but it was saved, spilled and cleared. Healy struck a two-pointer for Pat’s to leave it at just a point between the teams.
With the last kick of the game, from just inside the Ballon half, Healy struck again to incredible fanfare to see St. Pat’s edge the game by a single point to become champions.
Brian Maher 0-9 (4tpf), David Wilson 1-0, Thomas Murphy 0-1.
Eoin O’Toole 0-6 ( 4f, 1tpf), Kevin Healy 0-4 (1tp), Conor Murphy 0-2 (1tp), Tommy Murphy (f) and David Orbinski 0-1 each.
Dan Fanning, Adam Deacon, Shane Byrne, Nick Mullins, Thomas Maher, Darren Geraghty, Robbie Ward, Eoin Doyle, Ciaran Lewis, Rory O’Connor, John Gittens, Thomas Murphy, Kevin Maher, David Wilson, Brian Maher.
Darragh Byrne (for O’Connor, 35), Billy Flynn (for Mullins, h/t).
Anthony Moran, Conor Cleary, Mubat Mudawapi, Conor Murphy, Adam Denton, Kevin Healy, Cathal Lyons, Tadhg Foley, David Orbinski, Oisin Lyons, Tadhg Black, Cian Gorman-Comerford, Cillian O’Neill, Eoin O’Toole, Donal Kelly.
Conor Brophy (for Orbinski, 10), Allan O’Neill (for Denton, 21), Eoin Dempsey (for Hanley, 40), Mark Sherratt (for Gorman-Comerford, 41), Tommy Murphy (for O’Neill, 44).
David Hickey (Fenagh)
