Crosshaven retain junior football crown

Crosshaven 3-9 

Ballygarvan 2-5

HOWARD CROWDY REPORTS

CROSSHAVEN retained the South East junior B football title with a comfortable win over Ballygarvan in Carrigaline.

It took some time for both sides to settle into the game with scores at a premium in the early stages – the first from Crosshaven’s Liam Walsh in the second minute followed by a goal from Ballygarvan’s Ken Ashman in the 11th minute as Ballygarvan led 1-0 to 0-1. 

Crosshaven’ s Craig Noonan cut the deficit down to one in the 13th minute and by the 19th minute the sides were level courtesy of Crosshaven’s Greg O’Callaghan.

Two points from Ballygarvan’s Damien O’Sullivan and Ken Ashman put Ballygarvan back in front before Crosshaven cut the lead back to one in the 23rd minute. 

However, a minute later Ballygarvan were awarded a penalty which was converted by Mark Gallagher as they now had a seemingly comfortable four-point lead with minutes remaining in the first half.

Crosshaven managed to get a goal back in the 26th minute from Fergal Conway and another from Eoin Maverly, coupled with points from Jack O’Connell and Ben O’Brien, and Crosshaven had turned the game around from four points adrift to lead by four at the interval.

Damien O’Sullivan cut the lead down to three at the start of the second half, but Crosshaven responded. Points from Craig Noonan and Ben O’Donovan had Crosshaven six points up halfway through the second half.

Ballygarvan couldn’t quite compose themselves and ran up five wides in succession and were reduced to 14 players when Ken Ashman saw red in the 49th minute.

Crosshaven continued to hold possession and put more of a gloss on the score line in the 59th minute when Adam Kent scored Crosshaven’s third goal to leave seven points between the sides at the final whistle. 

Scorers 

Ballygarvan: Ken Ashman 1-1, Mark Gallagher 1-0 pen, Damien O’Sullivan 0-3 (1f), Dylan O’Connor 0-1.

Crosshaven: Craig Noonan 1-3, Fergal Conway 1-1, Eoin Maverly 1-0, Liam Walsh, Jack O’Connell, Ben O’Donovan, Ben O’Brien, Adam Kent 0-1 each.

Ballygarvan: John Murphy, Gary Corcoran, Adam O’Leary, William O’Halloran, John Barron, John Fitzgerald, Teddy O’Donovan, Michael O’Sullivan, Oisin Kavanagh, Alan Murphy, Damien O’Sullivan, Mark Gallagher, Ken Ashman, Martin Hallahan, Mark O’Callaghan, Daniel McSweeney, Aaron Buckley, David Murphy, Donal Sweeney, Dylan O’Connor, Eoin Jefferies, Eugene O’Brien, John Spillane, Mark O’Callaghan, Michael Dowd, Michael Roche, Padraig Coholan, Padraig McCormack, Patrick McSweeney, Paul Sexton, Peter Murphy, Shane O’Leary, Shane Sexton

Crosshaven: Jamie Byrne, Brian Cahill, Anthony Sheehan, Peter O’Donovan, Ben O’Brien, Cian Kingston, Greg O’Callaghan, Ryan Kinnirch, Craig Noonan, Jack O’Connell, Redvers McGrath, Ben O’Donovan, John O’Brien, Fergal Conway, Evan Maverly, Liam Walsh, Adam Kent, Brendan Fagan, Dara O’Connell.

Referee: Adam Cummins (Ballymartle).