Longford’s St Brigid’s Killashee hold out to reach the last four in Leinster

While St Brigid’s Killashee had to survive a couple of anxious moments in a very tense finish at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday last, they managed to hold out for a narrow win over the Wicklow Junior ‘A’ champions Shillelagh Coolboy to reach the last four in the Leinster Club. 

St Brigid’s Killashee . . . 1-9    Shillelagh Coolboy (Wicklow) . . . 0-11

Just a solitary point separated the sides in the end as the Longford representatives St Brigid’s (minus the injured Ronan Kavanagh) advanced to earn another home game on November 29th against Carlow outfit Fighting Cocks who caused a considerable upset to beat a strongly fancied Clann na nGael side from Meath after extra-time (2-19 to 1-20). 

Dylan Farrell scored the crucial goal for Killashee in the 49th minute to leave his side leading by 1-9 to 0-8 and apparently in control but they failed to register another score during the remainder of the match.

Three points in a row from resilient Killelagh Coolboy closed the gap to the minimum of margins and wing back Finlay Nolan squandered a great chance of the equalising score but he shot across the face of the goalmouth deep into stoppage time.
Another missed opportunity followed for the visitors and the St Brigid’s players were very relieved indeed to hear the sound of the final whistle in their quest to qualify for the Leinster Club Junior Final for the second time after losing out to Curraha (Meath) in the title decider back in 2015.
For most of the match played in difficult wet conditions in front of a small attendance, Killashee were the better side but a couple of clear-cut goal chances were squandered by Dylan Farrell and Paddy Mollaghan in the first half and that kept Shillelagh Coolboy in contention.
Having said that, the dangerman corner-forward Brendan Behan missed a sitter when looking poised to finish the ball to the St Brigid’s net with 10 minutes gone in the second half so it was generally a lucky escape for Eamon Farrell’s side.

While the contribution of Longford senior regular Dylan Farrell was particularly significant in the second half as he registered a goal and two points from play, Paddy Clancy figured most prominently in the St Brigid’s half-back-line right throughout the game.
Dylan shot straight at the opposing keeper in the opening minutes of the match and Paddy Mollaghan was guilty of the same poor finish midway through the first half when at least one green flag should have been raised.
There were six different scorers for Killashee in the first half as they held a slender 0-6 to 0-4 lead at the break. Michael Farrell converted a free in the 2nd minute and the other points came from James Willis, Tommy Killian, Paddy |Mollaghan, Johnny Casey and Dylan Farrell (free).
Farrell fired over another point in the early stages of the second half but the scores were scarce for St Brigid’s thereafter with another goal attempt from Paddy Mollaghan saved by Shillelagh Coolboy netminder Cathal Fitzsimons.

A couple of more points followed from Mollaghan and Dylan Farrell and the key attackers then linked up to create the decisive goal that looked to have settled the issue directly after a two-pointer (play) from Eddie Cullen for the visitors.

Keeping the scoreboard ticking over, Shillelagh Coolboy showed a lot of character to recover from conceding the goal and their sheer perseverance almost paid off but time ran out as Killashee survived to earn a crack at the Fighting Cocks in the semi-final.

  ST BRIGID’S KILLASHEE: Barry Geraghty; Briain Farrell, David Buckley, Shane Cosgrove; James Willis (0-1), Paddy Clancy, Keelan Cox; Michael Farrell (0-1, free), Jack Magan; Niall McCormack, Dylan Farrell (1-3, 1 free), Johnny Casey (0-1); Colin Cousins, Paddy Mollaghan (0-2), Tommy Killian (0-1).

Subs:- Evan Farrell for C Cousins (40 mins); Darren Cosgrove for B Farrell (47 mins); John Lee for N McCormack (58 mins).

 SHILLELAGH COOLBOY (Wicklow): Cathal Fitzsimons; Daire Foley, Ruairi O’Brien, Lee Dagge; Jonathan Smyth, Aaron Kinsella, Finlay Nolan; Dan Nolan, Ciaran Lambert; Brandon Rossitter, PJ Mulhall, Eddie Cullen (0-5, 1 two-pointer play, 3 frees); Conor Byne (0-1), Wayne Kinsella (0-1), Brendan Behan (0-4). 

Subs:- Milo Quinn for PJ Mulhall (41 mins); Dan Behan for J Smyth (45 mins). 

Referee: Eamonn O’Connor (Offaly).