Naomh Colmcille CLG – Donegal

Naomh Colmcille and Burt will have to do it all over again next week after drawing the Junior A Championship semi final at O’Donnell Park on Saturday evening.

Burt were first off the mark with a point after two minutes. Naomh Colmcille’s gameplan was then thrown up in the air when both Gerard and Cathal Curran were forced to leave the field due to injury in the space of a couple of minutes. First, Gerard Curran suffered a hamstring pull, and he had barely left the pitch before his brother Cathal sustained a bad ankle injury. With two players out of the half back line, Stephen Friel was forced to rejig the team and bring Stephen Davenport and Ruction Callaghan on as replacements.

Unsurprisingly, it took Naomh Colmcille a few minutes to adjust to the new line up and positions, but they quickly set about their task, with Barry O’Hagan getting their first point on the board on 10 minutes. The first quarter was a cagey affair, with neither side creating many scoring opportunities, until Stephen Davenport found the net for Naomh Colmcille. Ciaran Callaghan started the move in the half back line and worked it through Ciaran Devine in the centre, who laid it off to Davenport, who drove the ball into the corner from the 13m line. Barry O’Hagan followed up with a free after Thomas McKinley was brought down as it appeared that Naomh Colmcille were beginning to get the upper hand. Indeed, Davenport nearly found the net again, but the Burt keeper pulled off an excellent save to turn the ball around the post low to his right. This proved to be a crucial save, as Burt pulled back two points at the end of the thalf to leave the scores at 1-02 to 0-3 at the break.

Naomh Colmcille got off to the perfect start in the second half. Stephen Davenport played a high ball to the edge of the square, and Ryan McErlean got a fist to it. The Burt keeper managed to keep the ball out, but it fell to Ruction Callaghan on the edge of the square who made no mistake and rifled the ball into the net. Burt replied with a point and then there was high drama as they were awarded a penalty when one of their forwards was pulled down when he was about to pull the trigger. Marty Callaghan, the Naomh Colmcille keeper, got down low and parried the first effort. It fell back into the path of the penalty taker, but again Callaghan blocked the shot. This time it fell to an onrushing Burt player, who finally buried it in the net.

As the game entered the final quarter, a bad injury to the Burt number 8 resulted in a 5 minute delay. When play resumed, Burt converted two frees to take a one point lead. Eddie Gillespie came on for Anthony Grant. Barry O’Hagan got the scores back level with a point after Ryan McErlean was pulled down, but as the game went into injury time, Burt got a point from play to edge out in front again. As Naomh Colmcille desperately sought an equaliser, Ryan McErlean was pulled down 30 metres out. With injury time alsmost up, Barry O’Hagan stepped forward and put the ball over with the last kick of the game to draw the match at 2-04 to 1-07.

The teams will meet again this Saturday at 5pm at O’Donnell Park.