Limerick's St Kieran's edged out by Goleen in Munster Club Junior 'B' football semi-final

ON AN afternoon dominated by storm and rain, a spectacular last gasp point deep into injury time proved to be the difference as Cork champions Goleen squeezed past their Limeirk counterparts, St Kierans' second team 0-8 to 0-7, on Sunday to qualify for a Munster junior B football final meeting against Kerry representatives Beale in Ballaygran.

Early on, such a tight outcome didn't look remotely on the cards as a furious opening by the club from the furthest point on the Mizen peninsula threatened to run away from their opponents even though the gale was blowing straight into their faces.

H0wever, whenever they most southerly outpost of the GAA moved themselves ahead, they settled for containment and allowed their opponents to play themselves back into contention. Given a surface that had the life sucked out of it by the weekend downpours, maybe such caution was understandable as difficulties with retaining balance and direction led to referee Evan Horan blowing 68 frees over the hour, 42 of them in favour of the Limerick side.

Even though they came into the game as rank outsiders, St Kierans' never-say-die attitude almost carried off a shock result in a competition that has been almost totally dominated by Kerry and Cork clubs since its inception, Whenever they were given time on the ball, they showed the patience to move themselves into scoring range and the cuteness to draw the foul. Unfortunately, they just came up short on their finishing and had to rely on frees for all but three of their scores.

The wind and rain were at their fiercest on the throw-in yet, despite playing into the elements, Goleen owned the ball for the opening minutes as Pádraig Reidy's shot canoned off the crossbar and St Kierans frantically cleared their lines after a speculative shot stuck in the mud in the small square before Reidy eventually opened their account with a fisted point.

However, when conditions eased slightly, the Limerick champions were able to retain possession long enough to draw a foul for Luke Corrigan to punish.

Although Michael O'Reilly replied immediately with a free brought in for dissent, Ray Cahill replied off a backpass and scores remained level as an O'Reilly screamer that just skimmed over the bar was met by an Anthony Molyneaux free.

After an O'Reilly free put the Mizen men back in the lead, they settled into containing it on the run-in to half-time before the Ardagh club started running directly at their defence to draw the foul, which saw Molyneaux point a free to equalise.

St Kieran's took the lead when Corrigan collected off a quick one to fire over and gave them an advantage of 0-6 to 0-4 off another Corrigan placed ball as they headed into the dressing room.

Kieran's lead from that burst of scores didn't last long as Goleen threw everyone forward to capitalise on the gale at their backs, as half-time sub Páidí O'Regan got on the scoresheet within 20 seconds of his introduction before following up with an equalising point on the turn,

Then after an O'Reilly pointed free put them ahead, the fury subsided as they settled back behind the ball.

Despite a scare after two backpasses from their own free led to a desperate goalmouth scramble, the tactic of containment appeared to be paying off as Kierans spent 15 fruitless minutes looking for the opening before finally drawing level off a Molyneaux free.

Goleen almost struck back immediately, but were denied by a last gasp clearance after Kiernas were caught in possession in their own goalmouth but, with tiring legs eroding composure, that was the nearest either side got until, five minutes into added time, Tadhg Cullinane burst forward and kicked over the match-winning score on the run from 40 metres.

SCORERS: GOLEEN: Michael O'Reilly 0-4 (3 frees), Páidí O'Regan 0-2, Páidí Reidy. Tadhg Cullinane 0-1 each; ST KIERAN'S: Luke Corrigan (2 frees), Anthony Molyneaux (2 frees) 0-3 each, Ray Cahill 0-1.

GOLEEN: Ronan Kennedy; Paul Collins, Jack O'Driscoll, Michael Sheehan; Jake Coughlan, Ryan O'Callaghan, Pa Sheehan; Eden Healy, Tadhg Cullinane; Mícheál O'Donovan, Pádraig Reidy, Cian Bowen; Aaron Barry, Matthew Sheehan, Michael O'Reilly. SUBS: Paidí O'Regan for Aaron Barry (half-time), Patrick Scully for Cian Bowen (half-time), Daniel O'Driscoll for Matthew Sheehan (injured, 52 minutes), Shane O'Leary for Mícheál O'Donovan (58 minutes).

ST KIERAN'S: Con Enright; Ian Mackessy, John Doyle, Michael Murphy; James O'Connor, Johnny McCarthy, Fionn Gleeson; Jack Sullivan, Shane Fitzgerald; Cathal McEnery, Jack Ben Harnett, Ray Cahill; Luke Corrigan, Oisín Ryan, Anthony Molyneaux. SUBS: Séamus Mangan for Ray Cahill (injured, 30 minutes), Mike Upton for Luke Corrigan (58 minutes), Shay Greaney for Michael Murphy (61 minutes).

REFEREE: Evan Horan (Kerry).