Abbeylara spring big surprise to knock Killoe out!
Abbeylara 0-10
Killoe Young Emmets 0-9
(Article from Longford Leader – By Padraic O’Brien)
Gritty defender Cian Brady landed a late winning point as Abbeylara sprang a big surprise to knock the title holders Killoe out of the Senior Football Championship in a tense and tight semi-final clash at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday evening last.
It was no more than Abbey deserved after producing such a determined and disciplined display. Brady timed his run to perfection in bursting his way through to smack the ball over the bar in the 58th minute and that decisive score was good enough to get the North Longford club through to the decider against near neighbours Colmcille on Sunday 13 October.
The Frankie Dolan factor has lifted Abbeylara from the despair of failing to reach the quarter-finals last year to the brink of capturing the Connolly Cup for the first time since 2006 and to ease the pain of losing four county SFC finals in a row from 2015 to 2018.
The appointment of the former Roscommon star Dolan as their new manager is proving to be a very shrewd move with promising young players in Caolan Lynch, Ciaran Scanlon and Bryan Masterson making a big impact under the guidance of their current coach who won the man of the match award when a member of the Ballymahon team who won the senior championship back in 2002.
Although nine different Killoe players (including substitute Michael Quinn on his return from a lengthy injury absence) got their names on the scoresheet, the reigning champions still came up short against a very well organised Abbeylara outfit who were extremely slick on the counter-attack.
The eventual winners went so close to scoring a goal on a few occasions with the excellent Killoe keeper Micheal Hughes forced to make at least a couple of point-blank saves during the course of the exciting second half while Robbie Smyth had two goal attempts blocked down.
The alarm bells were ringing when a dipping shot from the impressive Lynch clipped the crossbar and the upright as the ball almost ended up in the back of the Killoe net in the early stages of the game and it developed into a real ding-dong battle that looked like ending in a draw and a replay.
But Abbeylara (minus the injured Cathal Gilligan) sensed that the game was there for the taking and the dominant spell they enjoyed in scoring four points in a row, the last from prominent defender PJ Masterson in the third quarter to lead by 0-9 to 0-7 midway through the second half, gave them the belief to get over the line in a frantic finish.
Apart from the Caolan Lynch goal chance in the 7th minute, scoring chances were scarce in a cagey first half with Killoe holding a slender 0-5 to 0-4 lead at the break.
Their scores were registered by Mark Hughes (free), Paddy Kiernan (a tremendous strike), Denis McGoldrick, Daniel Mimnagh and Gavin Farrelly while Robbie Smyth produced a brilliant start to fire over the first three points (1 free) for Abbeylara.
Caolan Lynch was also on target for the outsiders who created another goal chance in the 24th minute but Cian Brady was denied by a block from Killoe defender Shane Clarke.
The introduction of Larry Moran at the start of the second half injected a bit of a spark into the Killoe attack and they stretched their advantage with a point from Cian Farrelly immediately on the resumption.
Ciaran Scanlon replied for Abbeylara before Moran burst through to fist the ball over the bar. Then came the defining passage in this close encounter with Abbey shooting a succession of points to take control.
The four scores came from Colm P Smyth (an inspirational effort), Scanlon (free), Russell Brady and PJ Masterson, the latter on target after the Killoe keeper Micheal Hughes made a tremendous point-blank save to prevent the energetic Cian Brady from finding the back of the net in the 45th minute.
That was really putting it up to Killoe (without the injured Darren Moffett) but they battled back with a point apiece from substitutes Michael Quinn (making his first appearance in this year’s championship) and Paddy Moran to level matters, 0-9 to 0-9.
Both sides then had goal chances to settle the issue with Robbie Smyth denied by a brilliant block from Killoe defender Niall Farrelly while Larry Moran weaved his way through but shot wide in his attempt to find the back of the net.
A Gavin Farrelly shot for the lead point for Killoe dropped short into the safe arms of the opposing keeper Gavin Kelly before the influential Cian Brady stepped forward to fire over the winning score for Abbeylara, much to the sheer delight of their success starved supporters.
Killoe: Micheal Hughes; Liam Hughes, Niall Farrelly, Evan Farrelly; Shane Clarke, James Moran, Ryan Moffett; Paddy Kiernan (0-1), Ronan Keogh; Daniel Mimnagh (0-1), Gavin Farrelly (0-1), Cian Farrelly (0-1); Denis McGoldrick (0-1), Ronan McGoldrick, Mark Hughes (0-1, free).
Subs: Larry Moran (0-1) for S Clarke (half-time); Michael Quinn (0-1) for R McGoldrick (45 mins); Paddy Moran (0-1) for D McGoldrick (53 mins); Eamon Igoe for E Farrelly (55 mins).
