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Report from U.16 A Shield final as appeared in The Sligo Champion
Eastern Harps 8.08 Coolera/Strandhill 4.11
The final of
the Division 1 Shield took place in Ransboro Park on Sunday July 23rd at 12
noon between the home team Coolera/Strandhill and the visitors from the East
Division Eastern Harps.
Played on a
beautiful summers day, the large contingent of supporters were treated to a
spectacular goal-fest as no fewer than 12 green flags were raised during the
sixty minutes of play. Eastern Harps were quick to settle and despite playing
into a fresh breeze they were 1.02 to no score in the ascendency after five
minutes, the goal coming from Michael Kielty Mc Manemy (his first of 3) and the
points courtesy of team captain Kyle Cosgrove.
Coolera
eventually got off the mark with a pointed free from Keelan Harte. His old
school free taking style of kicking the ball directly off the ground proved to
be very accurate throughout the game. Harps replied with another goal before
Josh Gilligan hit a monster of a point
from 40 metres just inside the right hand side line, and when the same player
scored his sides first goal the gap was whittled down to three points. The East
Division outfit were under intense pressure but Oskar Grezenda was a tower of
strength in the defence and with the tenacity of Eoghan Higgin’s the seasider’s
were kept at bay. Daragh Cogans the
Harps netminder was called upon on more than one occasion and he thrived under pressure. Harps steadied
the ship with a point from Caelan Hunt followed by another goal from Matt Henry
to leave the half time score 3.06 to 1.04 in favour of the winners.
It was a
very determined Coolera/Strandhill team that took to the field for the second
half. In the opening ten minutes they
kicked five unanswered points, three from the aforementioned Harte plus one
each from wing back Tristan Gilligan and Ben Cawley as they totally dominated
from the re start. Oran Mc Donagh became very influential and along with the
speed of Jack Cawley they began to prize
holes in the Harps rearguard. Harps
cause was not helped by the loss through injury of Robin Richardson who excelled
at wing back. Coolera were dealt a hammer blow when in the first meaningful attack of the second half for
Eastern Harps they goaled, and within a minute Cormac Kielty beat Cian Connell the
Coolera/Strandhill keeper again to put nine points between the teams.
Credit to
the home team they refused to lie down and a minute later Donagh Flynn had the
umpire reaching for the green flag after he finished a flowing move to the net.
That was as good as it got for Coolera/Strandhill as Donnacha Byrne imposed his
physicality in midfield and with intelligent play from Luke Hogge Eastern Harps
weathered the onslaught. The energetic Kieran Breheny swept up anything in
defence and Diarmuid Higgins caught the
eye with a very assured display from corner back. . The goals were not finished
however as both teams scored 2 more each
with James Kiernan finishing a fine move orchestrated by Cillian Burns in injury time and with time almost up Liam
Gilligan hit the final score of the game for Coolera/Strandhill.
After the
game Bill O Kelly Lynch from Coiste Na Nog was loud in his praise for the host
club for hosting the game and having the pitch in pristine condition. He
presented the A Shield to Kyle Cosgrove captain of the victorious team.