St Senan's edge past Banogue to claim Limerick U21 'C' football title

“WE did the groundwork before the break and it was enough to allow us to hold out against the late rally,” was how manager Colman O'Flaherty summed up Saint Senan's 1-8 to 1-6 Thursday evening victory over Banogue in the Limerick U21 C football final under the Mick Neville Park floodlights.

In a sign of what was to come, Banogue had already shot four wides before Senans put their first attack together which yielded a free for Oisin O'Farrell to send over. Their next saw skipper Oisín Finucane collect wide off his marker and then round him to lay off to O'Farrell who took it on the burst to crash to the net.

With Griffin still winning possession in the middle and Conor Hanley still feeding the front men, the South Limerick side continued to attack but the misses kept mounting until Foynes settled again for O'Farrell's free and two strikes from Killian O'Mahony widened the gap to seven.

Adam Hanley got Banogue finally off the mark after 23 minutes only to be met by a O'Mahony point before Hanley struck again in injury time in response to O'Mahony's goal effort being blocked on the line to cut Senan's lead to 1-5 to 0-2 at the break.

The rally continued past the interval as Banogue pressure drew two frees for Hanley to punish but opportunities wasted on the final pass prevented them from drawing any closer. Once past the three-quarter mark, the attacks subsided and the Shanagolden club rediscovered their focus and O'Farrell's free followed by strikes from Senan O'Brien and O'Farrell looked to wrapped up the result.

However, Banogue weren't finished yet as Liam Enright caught Hanley's free on the edge of the square to squeeze over the goal line just into injury time and Mark Fitzpatrick's shot on the run brought the gap back to a goal. As the clock continued to tick, Senans conceded the fouls just outside the square, Hanley sent one of them over, but time ran out on Banogue before they could draw any closer.

SCORERS: SAINT SENAN'S: Oisín O'Farrell 1-4 (0-3 frees), Killian O'Mahony 0-3, Senan O'Brien 0-1; BANOGUE: Adam Hanley 0-5 (3 frees), Liam Enright 1-0, Mark Fitzpatrick 0-1.

SAINT SENAN'S: Jack Lane; David Barrett, Conor Sheehan, Dom Hayes; Senan Walsh, Darren Kearns, Will Madigan; Rory O'Connor, Oisín O'Farrell; Jamie Corbett, Senan O'Brien, Aaron Kearns; Aidan O'Malley, Oisín Finucane, Killian O'Mahony. SUBS: Jake Power for Jamie Corbett (36 minutes), AJ Moroney for David Barrett (57 minutes), Niall O'Connor for Aidan O'Malley (57 minutes).

BANOGUE: James Sheehan; Mark Meade, Shane Scully, Jake Walsh; James Gubbins, William Dore, Thomas Delahunty; Mrk Fitzpatrick, David Griffin; Liam Enright, Conor Hanley, Aidan Meade; Keane Costello, Dara Rabbitte, Ciarán Fox. SUBS: Adam Hanley for Dara Rabbitte (11 minutes), Dara Rabbitte for Keane Costello (42 minutes).

REFEREE: Michael Browne (Dromcollogher-Broadford).