Our Lady’s Secondary School, Belmullet, Mayo 2/4 Nagle Community College, Mahon, Cork
Tommy Conroy (11), Garry Boylan (21) Liam Coleman (31, 85), Alan Browne (54, 73)
NAGLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE overcame a two/goal deficit and two red cards to secure a well deserved John Murphy Cup title in Athlone IT yesterday (February 20), their second title in three years:
The Mahon School last won the title back in 2011 when they defeated St: Catherine’s Vocational School of Killybegs 3/0 in extra time: The School contested yet another Cup Final last season but it took extra time yet again to decide a winner: However, this time it was the talented St: Kevin’s Community College from Clondalkin that snatched the title from the Corkian’s on a 3/2 score/line:
A goal feast courtesy of centre back Liam Coleman (2) and Captain Alan Browne (2) set them up for victory
Browne found himself on the score sheet twice before becoming the first of three players to be sent off:
Our Lady’s, playing with the wind, opened the scoring after 11 minutes through Captain Tommy Conroy: Mikey Barrett headed a poor clearance back into the area and Conroy’s touch beat the advancing Cian O’Connor in the Nagle Community College goal:
That lead was doubled 10 minutes later when a Garry Boylan free from the left wing crept inside the far post untouched: The versatile Justin Healy was ever present in the box to deceive the keeper but Boylan can be credited for a superb set piece to take a commanding lead early on in proceedings:
The Mahon students were creating chances with some slick touches but an old fashioned corner gave them their breakthrough after 31 minutes, Coleman heading home an excellent delivery from Simon Irwin:
The same two players combined again to feed Alan Browne to level matters from another corner in the 54th minute and Nagle finally took the lead with 17 minutes to go when Browne capitalised on a defensive error:
Browne, Garry Boylan and Ryan O’Mahony were all dismissed in the last 10 minutes for various offences, while a fourth goal for Nagle courtesy of Coleman was enough to secure the title for the Cork School:
Our Lady’s were impressive throughout and the game looked to be heading to additional time but Seán Geasley’s students pulled through in the last quarter in fine fashion to take the prestigious John Murphy Cup back to Cork:
OUR LADY’S SECONDARY SCHOOL, BELMULLET: Jack Deane, James Deane, Tom Ivan, Brendan McGrath, Eoin O Donoghue, Kyle O Reilly, Garry Boylan, Mikey Barrett, Peter Cafferkey, Tommy Conroy (Capt), Justin Healy
Subs used: John McAndrew for Kyle O’Reilly (61), James Kelly for Peter Cafferkey (61), Eoghan McGrath for James Deane (71)
Subs not used: Aaron Healy, Manus Coyle, Cathal Barrett, Anthony Cosgrove, Shane McIntyre
Teachers: Harry Reilly, Robin Turner
NAGLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, MAHON: Cian O’Connor, Ryan O’Mahony, Kelvin Forde, Dale O’Neill, Liam Coleman, Simon Irwin, Ray Delaney, Alan Browne (Capt), Eric Santry, Robert Lynam, Dyllin Burke
Subs used: Keelyn Cotter for Simon Irwin (84), Kenneth Nugent for Dyllin Burke (86)
Subs not used: Jay Dondolo, Mayowa Arikawe, Richard McSweeney
Teacher: Seán Geasley
REFEREE: Paul Tone, Athlone