Liam Bergin at Solohead
Galtee Rovers – St. Pecaun’s are back in the West under 21 A football final after this seven point victory over a never-say-die Knockavilla Donaskeigh Kickhams team in a match played in fine conditions on an excellent Solohead pitch on Saturday afternoon.
With most of the heavy-hitters on the other side of the draw, Galtee now await the winners of the Golden, Cashel, Cappawhite and Arravale quarter and semi-finals.
In truth this game was decided in a five-minute spell leading up to the half time break when the Bansha lads hit 2-2 without reply to open up an eleven-point lead before the short whistle.
Despite conceding two further goals in the second half, Kickhams stuck manfully to their task and hit two late goals of their own to narrow the margin, although the result was never in doubt.
Conor Horgan opened the scoring after three minutes with a fine point but Galtee Rovers were quick to respond and when a Kickham attack broke down, Josh O’Dwyer was on hand to hit his side’s first goal with a neat finish.
Callum McCarthy, Conal Grogan Jack Crowe and midfielder, Bill Quirke proceeded to raise white flags for the Galtee’s while Jamie Duncan popped up to reduce the margin on 12 minutes.
Bill Quirke responded with his second point of the day before Michael Gleeson and Conor Horgan (2) pointed for Knockavilla Kickhams to leave a goal between the teams after 20 minutes.
An excellent move involving Bill Quirke and Robert Bailey-Moloney ended in a Jack Crowe goal with five minutes left to half time and soon afterwards Even Kennedy careered through the Knockavilla defence to hit another goal.
Which was followed by points from Bill Quirke and Conal Grogan to leave Galtee Rovers 3-7 to 0-5 up at the break.
Shane Buckley and Joe O’Dwyer hit points for Knockavilla Kickhams just after half-time, but these scores were quickly cancelled out by two frees from Conal Grogan and a massive point from Robert Bailey-Moloney.
As the half wore on, Galtee’s running game began to pay dividends, resulting in goals for Emmet Bonner and Callum McCarthy.
To their credit, Kickhams kept plugging away and were rewarded with a Michael Gleeson goal halfway through the second period along with points from Conor Horgan(2) and Conor Farrell, while Jack Crowe pointed for Galtee Rovers.
With a numerical advantage for the final minutes Kickhams continued to press on and their deserved reward was two late goals from Jamie Duncan and Joe O’Dwyer to leave the final score at 5-11 to 3-10.
While Galtee Rovers will be happy to have qualified for the West final they will have to address those second half lapses in defence and also the accumulation of Black cards which could prove costly in a tighter game.
Teams; Galtee Rovers; Robbie McGrath; Tadhg Gubbins, Liam Finnane, Joe O’Callaghan; Emmet Bonner (1-0), Dermot McCarthy, Cian O’Dwyer; Evan Kennedy (1-0), Bill Quirke (0-3); Sean Gubbins, Conal Grogan (0-4f, Robert Bailey-Moloney (0-1); Josh O’Dwyer (1-0), Jack Crowe (1-2), Callum McCarthy (1-1)
Subs; Ger Quinn, LJ Roche
Kickhams; Tom O’Driscoll; Diarmaid Carr, Brian Furlong, Jack O’Neill; Shane Buckley (0-1), Aidan Duggan (capt), Michael Gleeson (1-1); Conor Farrell (0-1), Adam Daly; Cormac Carr, Conor Horgan (0-5 1f), Jamie Duncan (1-1); Darren Kennedy, Joe O’Dwyer (1-1), Philly O’Neill
Subs; David Kingston, Liam Hayes.
Referee; Paul Carew (Lattin Cullen
