Football Championship Results
Saturday 17th July, 2005

Celts Take a Second Scalp
Mens' Junior Football Championship
Celts 3-15 Ulster 1-5

Left to right: Tom English, Barry McShane, Fergus Daly, Jimmy Flynn, and Aidan O'Flynn

It was certainly a case of adulthood’s experience versus boyhood’s fire in this junior championship game. The Celts, many of whom had been playing beforehand as part of the youth program, fired three shots in as many minutes at the start, all of which went wide. Shooting wides was a frustrating feature of this game on both sides, particularly for the opening seven minutes. The young American-born team showed great composure in the mid field and soon started running all the way inside to within goal scoring range but wisely chose to fist the ball over the bar. However, towards half time the Celts seemed to get a little tired as they started to lose a few breaking balls in the middle of the field and allow Ulster a few chances to get back into the game, but few of these were capitalised upon and at the half time whistle Ulster were trailing by nine points at 0-10 to 0-1.

In the second half Ulster emerged to regain a certain amount of fluency and confidence in their passing, with more of the clinical type of play that we have come to expect from them. However, there was no let up in the Celts’ attack, and as Aidan O’Flynn did a solo into the Ulster goalmouth, danced around the goalie to wrongfoot him and open up the net, the inevitable goal that followed set the tone for the rest of the game.

Ulster managed to open up a stream of scores to match what was coming from the Celts, but their lead was never under threat. Ulster looked close to getting a goal from a ball that bounced off the bar and rebounded out to Kevin Barry who promptly sent it over the bar. The forty-seven year old veteran, playing his first game in nine years, could hold his head high after doing his bit to take the bad look off of his team’s result.

Perhaps that was a turning point, for an Ulster goal soon followed courtesy of Tom English. However the Celts almost immediately retaliated for this with a goal of their own from Jimmy Flynn, and another from Niall O’Flynn. The fate of Ulster’s junior side was sealed, and the Celts moved into joint second position in this championship alongside the Young Irelanders. That could change tomorrow.

Referee: Fergus Daly (New York)

Ulster Defeated by the Tightest of Margins
Mens' Intermediate Football Championship
Sarsfield’s 1-11 (14) Ulster 0-13

Left to right: Thomas Neeson, Fergus Daly, and Liam Reidy

The early part of this game did not bode well for Sarsfield’s. There was a noticeable difference in the standard of passing between themselves and Ulster - the peninsula team was susceptible to dropping the ball, and not catching it or passing it cleanly. Ulster seemed much more in control. It also took a long time for both teams to get a score, but a Sarsfield’s goal by Niall McGillicudy against the run of play seemed to act as a catalyst for a rally by Sarsfield’s that was to last for the rest of the game and keep them ahead by the skin of their teeth.

Sarsfield’s lost key player Colm Brazil who limped off with a hamstring injury, but this did not stop them from breaking away from their opponents in mid field from where they were able to run in at high speed to within shooting range. Ulster put it up to them with some nice play of their own, but some sloppy finishing led to wides from as close as the 21. With hindsight after the game, the importance of this becomes even clearer.

Sarsfield’s began the second half one point ahead with the breeze at their backs. Some very tight defending on both sides caused a lot of end to end football in a flowing and high standard game. Ulster looked very menacing all the way and never once looked like a team that was going to give up. A foot block near the Sarsfield’s goalmouth gave away a free that was promptly converted by Ulster’s mass producer of points, Gary Seeley, to briefly level the score. There was a lot of nice play from Sarsfield’s Liam Reidy who, from all the way back, set up Niall McGillicuddy for a solo run that took him from the unpopulated left mid field, through a sharp right turn to the middle of the field and a left turn through the Ulster half backs to within range from where he launched a clinically executed point that went squarely between the posts.

These two great football teams fought all the way to the end for a result that prompted a huge sigh of relief in the Sarsfield’s camp, and heartbreak in the Ulster dugout. To lose by one point in a quality game like this cannot be easy.

Sarsfield’s moved to the top of the intermediate table with this victory.

Referee: Fergus Daly (New York)