Longford IFC: Killashee hold out for single point success against luckless Grattans

St. Brigid’s Killashee qualified for their fifth Intermediate Football Championship semi-final in six seasons in holding out for a narrow victory over Grattans at Leo Casey Park in Ballymahon on Saturday evening last. 

St Brigid’s Killashee . . . 3-11 Young Grattans . . . 1-16 

This was the third successive one-point defeat for an unlucky Grattans team in Group A and last year’s Junior A champions now find themselves in the four-team relegation play-offs alongside Sean Connolly’s, Ballymore and Kenagh in the fierce fight to avoid the dreaded drop down into the Junior A Championship.

For the Killashee/Clondra side, they go into the last four unbeaten with two wins and a draw and Eamon Farrell’s charges will be hoping that they are on course to win the Hennessy Cup for the first time since their back-to-back titles of 2020 and 2021.

Niall Hawes and Emmet Clarke pointed for Grattans in the opening minutes, but St. Brigids took the lead in the fourth minute with a Darren Cosgrove goal. Ronan Kavanagh and Jack Magan combined and Magan’s ball into the danger area caught the Grattan’s defence off guard as Cosgrove cleverly ran in behind them from the right to fist the ball to the bottom left corner of the net.

Dylan Farrell with a free and Paddy Mollaghan added points for the Killashee men, but two magnificent two-point scores, one from play from Rory Howlin and the other from a Peter Farrell free, followed by a Gary Hand point from play put the Stonepark side ahead by two points after thirteen minutes, 0-07 to 1-02.

Grattan’s keeper Reuben Murray then kept his side ahead with a brilliant save as he pushed a rasping Mollaghan shot onto the crossbar on the quarter-hour mark.

Another two-point free converted by Peter Farrell increased the lead to four points but on eighteen minutes, the lead was reduced to a single point as St. Brigid’s Dylan Farrell rattled the Grattan Óg net after a brilliant surging run which was set-up by Jack Magan.

 It was 0-12 to 2-4 in favour of Grattans on twenty-eight minutes. Two pointed frees from Peter Farrell  and a point from Hawes for Niall Vance’s charges was responded to by points from Mollaghan and Colin Cousins for Brigid’s.

Grattans held a four-point cushion at the interval as the scoring concluded with Peter Farrell’s third two-pointer free of the half to give them a 0-14 to 2-04 advantage at half-time.

Playing with the wind advantage in the second half, the Killashee/Clondra men reeled off the next five points to lead by a point after forty-two minutes, as a superb two-pointer from Dylan Farrell was added to by a free from Farrell, and further points slotted over by Michael Farrell and Mollaghan.

Niall Vance’s side then drew level courtesy of a Peter Farrell free, but St. Brigid’s hit back by scoring a 1-02 between the forty-eighth and fifty-second minutes to lead by five. Dylan Farrell fired over his second two-pointer, this time from a free, and Paddy Mollaghan struck for his team’s third goal as he ran in from the right and expertly rifled the ball to the roof of the net.

However, Grattan Óg rallied brilliantly in the closing stages with Shane O’Brien firing a low shot to the Killashee net on fifty-seven minutes after excellent set-up play from Peter Farrell and Conor McHugh, and then in injury time, O’Brien added a point, but time ran out as Grattan Óg could not secure the equalising point.

ST BRIGID’S KILLASHEE: Barry Geraghty, Keelan Cox, David Buckley, Ronan Kavanagh, Shane Cosgrove, Paddy Clancy, Niall McCormack, Jack Magan, Michael Farrell (0-1), Johnny Casey, Dylan Farrell (1-6, 2  two-pointers (1free), 2 frees), Darren Cosgrove (1-0), Tommy Killian,  Paddy Mollaghan (1-3) , James Campbell.

Subs:- Colin Cousins (0-1) for J Casey (injured, 17 minutes), Mark Rossiter for J  Campbell (half-time), Briann Farrell for D Cosgrove (50 mins).

YOUNG GRATTANS: Reuben Murray, Niall Nerney, David Bermingham, Conor McHugh, James Moran, Karl Murray, Emmet Clarke (0-1), Beau O’Connor, Stephen Oates, Shane O’Brien (1-1), Peter Farrell  (0-9, 3 two-pointer frees, 3  frees), Niall Hawes (0-2), Gary Hand (0-1), John Hand, Rory Howlin (0-2,  two-pointer). 

Referee: Michael Farrell (Ballymahon).