Saturday 06 Aug 2016Ibane U21 Football - County Final
Páirc Uí Rinn, 18:15PM
Ibane Gaels 2-12 Clyda Rovers 2-05
First time finalists, Ibane Gaels could do nothing wrong as they marched to a magnificent County U21 B Football championship triumph at Páirc Uí Rinn last Saturday night.
Coming up to the break in a one-sided decider the signs were that the Southwest champions would be the ones to succeed as a brace of points from the boot of the lively Jack Cahalane had pushed Ibane out to a commanding lead of 0-08 to 0-02, but in first-half injury time disaster struck as a long high ball was not dealt with by the otherwise impressive Ibane defence, and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot after the Clyda corner forward was upended. Conor Madden had no chance from the resulting spot kick. The teams retired at the short whistle with Ibane leading 0-08 to 1-02.
Clyda started the second half positively and quickly had a score on the board to reduce the lead to two points and seemingly game on. But then came the games turning point, Dan O'Driscoll a half time sub, who on so many occasions throughout this campaign has terrified opposition defences with his direct running, picked up a pass in midfield and headed straight for the Clyda goals, his shot smothered by the defence but the ball broke kindly to Mark Crowley who coolly finished to the Clyda net. Shortly after the game was put to bed as Cahalane placed the ball in the top corner from the ground, after rounding several Clyda Rovers defenders to finish smartly, 2-09 to 1-03 with 15 minutes left. When Conor O'Regan was finally rewarded with a score after one of the many lung bursting runs he became the 15th player to score in this year's campaign which illustrates the strength and team balance of the 2016 County Champions.
Ger Lane was on hand to present the Sean Crowley Cup to a delighted Ibane Captain Daniel Hurley. The Ibane juggernaut rolls on relentlessly in search of further glory!
Team: Conor Madden, Conor O'Regan (0-01), Joe Sheehan, Patrick Moloney, Daniel Hurley, David Kiely, Gerry Crowley, Killian McSweeney, Eoin Lawton (0-01), Jack Murphy, John Whelton, Cathal O'Donovan, Jack Cahalane (1-04), Oisin Dowling (0-02), Mark Crowley (1-04)
Subs: Michael Whelton, Daniel O'Driscoll, John Dullea, Steven Madden, Ted Kearney, Bill Fleming, Sean Holland, Darragh O'Donovan, Ciaran O'Sullivan, Killian Lawton, Christy Crowley, Andrew McCarthy (inj), Brian Scannell (inj)
