Ballyboden St Enda’s 0-18 Lucan Sarsfields 0 15
It’s a scary time of the year and it sure was scary in the closing minutes of Sunday’s championship final at a miraculously dry PUM on Sunday last. Entering the last phase of play Lucan forced a 30m free slightly left of the Boden posts. Up stepped their right half forward with only one thing in mind but to force a goal and take the game to extra time. Ross is marshalling all the troops around him while from the side-line enters Niall O’Neill to provide extra goalkeeping cover. Mercifully, the strike was slightly off, Bucko puts his body on the line stops the shot low down flicks the sliothar to his left, a scramble of bodies forms around the ball and finally the whistle blows and Boden are champions.
There was never much between the sides during this match as scores were swapped throughout. Boden led 0-10 to 0-9 at half time with David Curtin and especially Dermot Coffey prominent on the scoring charts. The highlight of the half was an outrageous over the should effort from Coffey in the 20th minute. Neither side could establish a commanding lead but the entertainment value was great for the large crowd assembled at the clubhouse side of the pitch.
This pattern continued into the second half and with less than 15 minutes to the final whistle it was all square at 15 points apiece. However, the home side was beginning to have a slight advantage around the middle of the field with veterans Stephen Hiney, David Curtin and the younger Neal Farrell beginning to make their presence felt. It was in the last 10 minutes, when Boden seemed to get a second wind, that proved to be the winning of this match. Curtin pointed some vital frees while with time almost up Hiney was bearing down on goal but the Lucan goalkeeper stood his ground to save their day for now. Moments later Conor Barton was fouled in the square, after he made a magnificent catch. The resultant penalty slid from the hurl of Coffey over the bar to put a less squeaky 3 points between the sides. Just enough to keep the nerves from a complete shredding.
Team; Ross McCormack, John Murray, Johnny McCormack, Cathal Creed, Peter Buckeridge, Brian Kennedy (Captain), Des O’Sullivan, David Curtin (0-6, 5 frees), Neal Farrell, Ciarán Twomey, Stephen Hiney 0-2, Jonathan O’Donoghue, Adam Fischer, Dermot Coffey 0-8, (2 frees, 1 penalty), Emmet Carroll 0-2, Darren Lennox, Aidan Dundon, Conor Barton, Niall O’Neill, Eoghan Duignan, Kevin Brady, Alan McGovern, Micheál Manning, James Kinsella, Mark Kelly, Dennis Callanan, Timmy Cleary, Oisin Cannon.
Thanks to Clíona for the photos