Football Championship Results
Sunday 31st July, 2005

JFC = Junior Football Championship
IFC = Intermediate Football Championship
SFC = Senior Football Championship

Fog City Remain Undefeated
Ladies' Junior A Football Championship
Fog City Harps 2-9 Saoirse 0-9

Fog City, playing into the wind in the first half, suffered from a lot of kickouts falling short and directly into the hands of the Saoirse half forwards who were able to promptly return the ball back over the bar eight times by half time.

The game really came to life in the second half when a long range ball kicked by Sharon Edgecombe dropped into the goalmouth, fooled Saoirse’s goalie with the high bounce, and sneaked into the net just below the bar to level the scores. It was a case of de ja vu a minute later as almost the same thing happened again, but this time it was disallowed as a square ball.

Fog City sprang to life and began penetrating deep into Saoirse’s territory to rack up the points. A second Fog City goal resulted from a ball punched into the net by Ashling Bryant pushed them well into the lead. A few bouts of pressure from Saoirse saw them fighting back up the field and getting a point back, but it was not enough to overcome the overwhelming hard work of Fog forwards such as Catherine Burke who was running riot out there and either setting points up for other people or taking them herself.

Referee: Malachy Higgins

YI Soar to Dizzy Heights in Junior Football Table
Junior Football Championship
Young Irelanders 1-11 Sean Treacy’s 1-8

Tony Kelly got a short range goal for Sean Treacy’s very early on in an otherwise low scoring first half that eventually saw some pretty intense tussles for possession in mid field. The Treacy’s lead stubbornly remained at three points all the way to the half time whistle because of tit-for-tat point scoring that punctuated a lot of end to end football that made the crowd in the stand look more like a tennis audience as they followed the play back and forth.

Young Irelanders came at them hard and fast in the second half and they eventually salvaged a goal by Eamonn Coleman from just outside the box. Treacy’s found themselves playing catch-up and eventually managed to level the scores to creep one point into the lead with ten minutes to go, but once again the evenly balanced scoring started up and the sides remained level at 1-8 to 1-8 with two minutes to go. A late YI point by Kevin Moylan put them back in the lead, then Treacy’s came tantalisingly close to getting a game-winning score as the forwards tried to battle their way through a congested goalmouth, but the resulting shot was deflected back down the field.

There would be no more scoring opportunities for Treacy’s, two more for YI, and this was enough to send the Young Irelanders safely to the final whistle with an unblemished record as the only undefeated side in this junior championship so far.

Referee: Emmet Minagh, Ulster.

Ulster Triumph in Senior Football Spectacle
Senior Football Championship
Ulster 1-12 Shannon Rangers 1-6

It was the grand finale to the day’s proceedings at Boxer stadium. Ulster’s Dan Gordon set the tone for this game very early on by shooting from an unfeasibly acute angle where many's a man would have passed into the middle, and yet the ball dropped neatly between the posts for the first of many scores like it from the men in black and amber.

Against the run of play, Rangers got a goal from a penalty by shooting a high calibre shot through the goalie’s hands, but this was no threat to an Ulster side that was ratcheting up its lead.

There was a lot of tough defending at both ends in an intense game that was definitely being played at senior level.

Rangers began the second half four points down, but they soon upped the ante and pushed hard to get up the field. It was an uphill struggle though, Ulster’s full backs were presenting an indestructible solid wall that was letting very little through. That said, Rangers’ own backs were holding their own and they kept Ulster from scoring for the first sixteen minutes of the second half and only let them take two shots in that time.

Rangers were very much on the attack, and eventually the hard running and short passing started to pay off as they ramped up the pressure and started taking enough points to get back into the game and level the scores with nine minutes to go.

Ulster got into the lead again with a point from a free following a pickup by a YI full back in the goalmouth, but the reply came soon enough as a period of retaliatory scoring saw the sides levelled several times. Two minutes into injury time, Ulster managed to push two points into the lead, but the biting of nails came to an end when Ulster’s Smacker McCauley finished off a beautifully smooth piece of play from the back of the field to rattle the net and consolidate Ulster’s grip on the game.

The only remaining game ahead of the senior football final will be the clash between Sons of Boru and Shannon Rangers on August 14th. If Boru win, they and Ulster will go through to the final. If Rangers win, all Senior teams will be on equal points. In that case, the three-way tie will be resolved in a way that has yet to be decided at this point. Either way, August 14th will be an interesting day for many clubs.

Referee: Frankie Keenan, Sean Treacy’s / Naomh Padraig

Malachy Higgins AKA "El Presidente" - the best dressed linesman in the West