ST FECHINS 1-11
COOLEY KICKHAMS 1-9
St Fechins secured a return the Senior Football Championship thanks to a hard fought two-point victory over Cooley Kickhams at Clan na Gael Park on Sunday afternoon.
Late points from Ronan Holcroft and Harry Haughney saw the Termonfeckin men come out on top and break the hearts of a Cooley team that had staged an impressive second half comeback.
St Fechins appeared to be cruising to victory when they led by five points approaching the final quarter but a combination of excellent goalkeeping from Cooley’s Sean Hayes and missed chances saw them fail to put the game to bed.
The peninsula side sensed an opportunity and a point from Brian White kick-started the revival with Cian Connor and Enda O’Neill following up before a brace from Connor had the teams level as the game moved into injury time.
The momentum was with the Kickhams at that stage but they were unable to complete the comeback before substitutes Holcroft and Haughney held their nerve to land the crucial winning points.
The early stages of the game proved to be relatively even with Joe Corrigan and Paddy Johnson among those trading scores before the Fechins grabbed the initiative when Conor Haughney scored the first goal of the game after ten minutes.
With the help of a score from Man of the Match Niall Devlin, the Fechins pulled further clear and were looking good when they moved 1-4 to 0-2 ahead.
Cooley had to dig deep at that stage and they showed character to hit back as Patrick Johnson replied with a point before Michael Carron found the net to get his side right back in the game.
This time it was the Termonfeckin side’s turn to find a response and they kicked the last two points of the half through Eoghan Duffy and Holcroft to lead by 1-6 to 1-3 at half time.
St Fechins dominated the early stages of the second half and two points from Niall Devlin had them in control once again. However, they missed a series of chances during that spell including three goal chances saved by Sean Hayes.
That allowed Cooley to retain hope and they gave themselves a great chance when drawing level in the dying seconds, but St Fechins had the final say as Holcroft and Haughney fired over to ensure the Seamus Flood Cup made its way to Termonfeckin.
ST FECHINS: Niall McDonnell; Adam O’Neill, Niall McCabe, Danny Burnell; Conor Haughney 1-0, David Collier; Jamie McDonnell; Bevan Duffy, Paul Matthews; Sean Kerrisk, Colm O’Neill, Joe corrigan 0-2; Ryan Walsh 0-1, Eoghan Duffy 0-1, Niall Devlin 0-4 . Subs: Ronan Holcroft 0-2 for C Haughney, Harry Haughney 0-1 for C O’Neill, Pauric O’Donoghue for E Duffy, Matthew Flannigan for J McDonnell.
COOLEY KICKHAMS: Sean Hayes; Luke White, Eoin McDaid, Ronan McBrideK Gerry Malone, Darren Marks, James O’Reilly; Brian White 0-1, Peter Thornton; Cian Connor 0-3, Fearghal Malone, Enda O’Neill 0-2; Michael Carron 1-0, Patrick Johnston 0-2, Aoghain McGuinness. Subs; Michael Rafferty 0-1 for A McGuinness, Richard Brennan for M Carron, Patrick Sheelan for E O’Neill.
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