Having won one and lost one of their group games, Boden Junior D team needed a win against St. James Gaels/An Caisleán in Ballycullen on Sunday to make sure of progressing to the Championship Quarter Finals.
The rain teemed down and continued as the ball was thrown in. St James opened the scoring with a point before Boden replied with points from Tom Dunne, James Kinsella and Aidan Dundon. James Gaels replied with a point before a fine move was finished by Fergus Tighe. However Boden were on the back foot as ST James Gaels rattled off 1-5 without reply. Two late points from Aido and Conor McGrath (Sporting a fine new number on his back) cut the deficit and at Half Time Boden were down by 4 points.
HT Boden 0-6 St. James Gaels/An Caisleán 1-7
Boden had been playing well but needed to cut out the mistakes and take their scores.
The second half started very tightly and it was a few minutes before Daniel O’Riordan scored a fine point followed by two fine points by Aido. Boden were now just a point behind and playing well. St. James Gaels/An Caisleán extended their lead by another point before Daniel scored a free to cut the deficit to the minimum again.
Boden were trying very hard to get the equalising score but it just wasn’t happening. Then Eoin O’Riordan made a tactical switch moving Cathal Creed further forward. Suddenly Cathal Creed was breaking forward and put a lovely ball into the middle where James Kinsella turned and blasted the ball to the back of the net to give Boden a 2 point lead. Cue mayhem on the sideline as all of Bodens efforts were now going to get their reward. From the kick out Jack Finn put the ball into the back of the net and Boden were nearly there. Aido added two more scores before St. James Gaels/An Caisleán pulled one back with seconds remaining.
It was a magnificent performance from the team, despite everything not going right, they battled on and got their reward which was topping the group and being in the Quarter Finals Championship Draw.
FT Boden 2-12 St. James Gaels/An Caisleán 1-9
BBSE squad Conor McGrath (0-1) ,Dara Kelly, Cathal Creed, James Kinsella (1-1), Fergus Tighe (0-1), Ben O’Riordan, Aidan Dundon (0-6), Ron Kelliher, Mick McDonald, Conor Reynolds ,Cathal Regan, Ruairi Farrelly, Dan O’Riordan (0-2), Jack Finn (1-0), Cian O’Toole, Tom Dunne (0-1), David Kane, James Colleary