Battling Cappagh bow out of Munster club championship at hands of Firies

“THAT unfortunate start left us with a mountain to climb but we stood up, dug in, gave it everything and, had we put away one or two second half chances, who knows how the game might have ended up.”

Manager Donal Canty was left rueing what might have been as Cappagh footballers' season ended with a 3-17 to 2-11 defeat to Kerry kingpins Firies in Saturday's Munster junior club football semi-final in Tralee's Austin Stack Park.

Seeing that the Kingdom's representatives have won all but three renewals of the championship in the 21 seasons since its introduction, Limerick's junior 'A' champions weren't given a prayer by neutral observers before the throw-in.

That prediction looked like being confirmed when a litany of errors in a nerve-wracked opening left the Limerick side 13 points down going into the second quarter.

But while they might have been down, Cappagh weren't out and, spurred on by a man-of-the-match performance by former county star Séamus O'Carroll, they pulled themselves back into contact by the break, held out against a prolonged Firies onslaught to put them away after the break and then struck back to bring the gap back to seven points by the three-quarter mark.

The momentum might have died when two goal chances failed to bear fruit, but Cappagh were still pressing away going into the seven minutes of injury time and, it was only when the Kerrymen picked off a late goal and point on the break that they could be sure that their victory was secure.

After Michael Daly opened the scoring for Firies, Cappagh had the chance to make an early mark on the game but, after collecting the pass from O'Carroll, James Lanigan couldn't get enough power in the shot to trouble Brian McCarthy.

The visitors immediately paid on the double when Stephen Palmer and Jake Flynn sent over quickfire points to extend their advantage. Nor did it stop there as the Limerick side, who had already been pulled twice for short kickouts, were then turned over off the next one for Diarmuid O'Mahony to lob into the empty net.

Cappagh were hit again immediately after with Palmer sent the kickout back over the black spot and the world fell in on the their prospects when Darragh Donohue soloed through the gap to blast home a rasper before Palmer and Donoghue pointed again for a lead of 11 points before the quarter mark had even been reached.

O'Carroll's shot on the turn broke the sequence for Cappagh's opener, but the Farranfore club were still rolling and stretched the gap further through points from Donohue, James Horgan and Darragh Brosnan before they eased back to to wait on the break.

That gave the chance for Cappagh to come at their opponents, drawing a foul for John Fitzgerald to convert and a game that had looked dead and buried revived itself when O'Carroll quickly followed up with a pointed free and a brace of scores from play.

Rediscovering their focus, the Kerrymen steadied themselves with points on the run Flynn, Donohue and Horgan, before O'Carroll shot back with a free and was followed by Cian O'Carroll collecting off him to round the challenge and drill to the net.

However, Horgan got in the last word of the first half with an added time free to leave Firies leading on a double-score tally of 2-12 to 1-6.

Firies tried to add to it on the resumption but the Cappagh defence had found the shape over the break to frustrate almost eight minutes of non-stop possession and then rubbed it in as Lanigan and Cian O'Carroll struck on the break.

Firies' attempt at an instant reply was foiled by a magnificent MacInness save before the tempo settled down going into the final quarter as a Palmer point was followed by Séamus O'Carroll and Horgan swapping frees,

Trying to regain the initiative, Cappagh saw a pair of goal chances wither on the final pass and the Kerry club looked to have eased themselves from danger when another Horgan pointed free, followed by an exchange between O'Carroll and Palmer, left them still ahead by nine points with three regulation minutes to go.

But the Limerick club were still up for the contest and, after O'Carroll's attempt to blast a free to the net broke inside the square, a rash challenge by O'Mahony earned him a second yellow and an early shower. Up stepped O'Carroll who made no mistake on the penalty.

Again the Limerick champions piled forward but were caught on the break as Horgan earned a free to convert and, even though O'Carroll replied in kind, Horgan collected a 'Hail Mary' clearance and rounded the challenge to hit the net with the last action of the game.

SCORERS: FIRIES: James Horgan 1-6 (0-4 frees), Stephen Palmer 1-4, Diarmuid O'Mahony 1-0, Jake Flynn, Darragh Donohue, Darragh Brosnan 0-2 each, Michael Daly 0-1; CAPPAGH: Séamus O'Carroll 1-8 (1-0 penalty, 0-4 frees), Cian O'Carroll 1-1, John Fitzgerald (free), James Lanigan 0-1 each.

FIRIES: Brian McCarthy; Chris Palmer, Diarmuid Brosnan, Brian O'Leary; Niall Donohue, Pádraig de Brún, Diarmuid O;Mahony; Tomás Clifford, Jake Flynn; Cian Doe, James Horgan, Darragh Donohue' Michael Daly, Darragh Brosnan, Stephen Palmer. SUBS: Seán Cooper for Darragh Donohue (45 minutes), Liam Brosnan for Darragh Brosnan (52 minutes), TJ Palmer for Pádraig de Br.ún (58 minutes), John Power for Tomás Clifford (58 minutes), Seán Burke for Michael Daly (58 minutes).

CAPPAGH: Craig MacInnes; Owen Dee, Tom McMahon, Bob Cregan; Conor Lenihan, Barry Lenihan, Nessan Leary; David Lowe, Eoin Barry; Séamus O'Carroll, Colin Barry, James Lanigan; Cian O'Carroll, Jack Lenihan, John Fitzgerald. SUBS: Pádraig O'Gorman for Colin Barry (55 minutes), Richard O'Dea for David Lowe (55 minutes), Pat Lenihan for John Fitzgerald (58 minutes).

REFEREE: Ciarán Murphy (Cork).