Result: 0-10 to 2-07
The Junior B’ s just fell short of a championship final on Sunday after suffering a narrow loss to Oliver Plunketts at PUM. In what was a tight nervy affair throughout Boden just missed a bit of quality or injection of pace that would have got them over the line. The opening exchanges set the tone for the afternoon with space at a premium and a number of scores from placed balls including a monster effort from Tom Connors drew the sides level after fifteen minutes. Plunketts then seized the initiative and grabbed a goal after a magnificent save from Ger Flaherty was followed up with a bullet of a finish. Boden responded with Connors again replying leaving Plunketts with a two point lead at the break. The first half was notable of some excellent defensive displays given by Michael Dunne, Alex Murphy, and Ross Traynor. Boden grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck at the resumption and reeled off seven unanswered points from Emmet Carroll, Paudge Mahony, Tom Wafer, Ciaran Murphy, Tom Connors and Ronan O’Reilly which gave them a four point lead. This purple patch lulled Boden into a false sense of security and unfortunately left them crying out for the finish instead of pushing on.
Plunketts rallied and grabbed a decisive goal with ten minutes to play which drew the sides level. Boden were unable to muster a response and Plunketts pushed on by tagging on three points and despite a late goal chance for Boden that was to be the final result.
A disappointing end to a magnificent campaign which started with 42 teams and Boden can be proud of making the last four.