The Southern Star previewed this 1^st round clash in the Sports Section of Thursday’s newspaper, as follows; “The battle of the outsiders will provide one side with a welcome win, barring a draw, but that’s as far as they can expect to go. Plunkett’s are great battler’s and might just shade this one.”

In truth, I don't think anyone outside of this group of young men, would have argued with that before throw-in this afternoon; oh boy, how wrong we were!

On a cool, blustery afternoon in Drimoleague, it would be the Glengarriff men that would ease into the Carbery U21 Quarter Final Draw, with St. Oliver Plunkett’s pondering their next move and a second chance in the losers round next weekend after a full time score of 6-16 to 3-04.

The match threw-in just after 1pm on a heavy pitch with the wind assisting the Glen in the opening half. The Beara side made the better of a nervy first five minutes, but couldn't convert some good position in front of the posts and were punished when the Saints countered and rebounded the ball to the net, after a good first save from Daniel Murphy it fell to the on rushing wing forward. The Glen immediately responded with points from, Jack Hurley & Connor Galvin to settle the early nerves. Plunkett’s notched their first point, before Man of the Match; Seán McCarthy collected his first of eleven scores (9 from play) of the afternoon with 10 minutes played, but it was Ciarán McElhinney that started and ended a 5 minute spell of dominance with a goal on 11 minutes followed by a point from Gearoid O’Sullivan and two more from Seán Mc before he netted again in the 16^th minute. Plunkett’s pulled back two points to leave 6 points between the sides with 20 minutes played. This would be as close as they would get and to be honest the game was over as a contest at half time after a closing 5 minutes saw McCarthy point three more from play and a free, with Ciarán popping up with another himself, to leave the score line reading 2-11 to 1-03 at the break. To be honest it could and should have been more, only for some fine brave goalkeeping from the Saint’s number 1 and the crossbar, which saw Eoghan McElhinney’s fine effort crash back into play nearing the end of the half.

The second half started with Plunkett’s on the attack and they were rewarded after a mix-up in the Glen defence left an easy finish to the net in the second minute. Ciarán responded with two fine points in the 35^th & 37^th minutes to settle his side into the second period, before his younger brother, Eoghan, finally got his just rewards for some great play during the game and buried the ball to the net from 20 yards out. Minutes later, McCarthy had his first goal of the afternoon. The Saint’s pulled a goal back from the penalty spot in the 47^th minute, but it was Seán McCarthy that put this game to bed with two more points from play & his second goal in the 51^st minute to bring his personal tally to 2-07 from play and 2 pointed frees. The bench was emptied at this stage and immediately Connor Lancaster pointed from play before Diarmuid O’Shea concluded the scoring for the Glen with a Goal in the 53^rd minute. The last point went to the battling St. Oliver Plunkett’s before the referee called an end to a very satisfactory performance for the men in Green & Red. The final score read 6-16 (34pts) to 3-04 (13pts).

While everyone gave a great account of themselves on the field, some of the stand out performances were;

·       Cillian Collins, at corner back, who marked their best forward and on many occasions turned position over in the tackle which lead to our forwards converting at the other end. Cillian is fast becoming one of our most consistent and valuble defenders.

·       Fergal O’Sullivan, in the other corner back spot, who hasn’t played a game of football in nearly two years, swept up a lot of loose passes and gave simple ball out of defence.

·       Paidi O’Sullivan, at wing back, did everything simple and distributed some excellent passes into the forwards, he never looked under pressure.

·       Daniel Hartigan, at centre forward, played as a second midfielder for most of the contest, he used his physical strength to win the ‘dirty’ ball in the key areas and covered a lot of ground on a heavy pitch.

·       Man of the Match, Seán McCarthy, at wing forward. For an overall performance, he will do well to match today’s for a long time to come. The key moment for me was about 10minutes into the first half when he raced out to the sideline to track someone else’s man and managed to stop the attackers run and tackle the ball away from him, collect possession and run at the opposition. It was this play that lead to Ciarán McElhinney’s Goal which swung the game in our favour. He’s work rate, decision making, distribution and of course the score taking were all near perfect today.

This was far from a brilliant performance, but it was one of the best team performances by a Glengarriff team that I have witnessed in a long time. There will be bigger tests to come this year, but a win in a Championship game is always something to be savoured, even if “that’s as far as they can expect to go”! 

Team:

Daniel Murphy (Capt), Cillian Collins, Fergal O’Sullivan, Paidi O’Sullivan, Connor Galvin (1pt), Stephen O’Sullivan, Gearoid O’Sullivan (1pt), Daniel Hartigan, Seán McCarthy (2-09(2f)), Eoghan McElhinney (1g), Ciarán McElhinney (2-03), Jack Hurley (1pt),

Subs: (All Used)

Thomas Harrington, Connor Lancaster (1pt), Diarmuid O’Shea (1g), Thomas O’Donovan, James Murphy