*St Breckans’ Aiden Davidson. Photograph: Willie O’Reilly (Burren Eye Photography)
St Breckans have sealed their place in the semi-finals of the Munster intermediate football club championship with a strong third quarter seeing them past Limerick champions Galtee Gaels.
St Breckans 2-13
Galtee Gaels 1-11
Venue: LIT Gaelic Grounds
When it came to their county final win over Kildysart, St Breckans scored a single point in the second half. This being their first outing since securing a return to the senior ranks, a significant improvement was shown in this sector with the men from Lisdoonvarna and Doolin amassing a second half tally of 1-07. However their drought of the final twenty one minutes cannot be replicated.
Galtee Gaels started the better kicking two scores inside the opening four minutes. St Breckans though they had to wait until the thirteenth minute to score from play, had already three frees on the board from Aiden Davidson which ensured McGann’s white flag put them in front for the first time.
Tristan O’Callaghan got down well to deny Sean Clancy bearing down on goal with Daniel Carey and Evan Barrett reacting quick to launch a counter attack which ended in Dale Masterson being fouled and Seamus Mulvihil awarding a penalty. Up stepped Davidson and he slotted the ball in the bottom right hand corner of Danny McGrath’s net.
Strong fielding from Dale Masterson set up McGann for his second score of the day on twenty four minutes. The South Limerick club finished the half with three of the final four scores to go in trailing 1-06 0-07 at the break.
Breckans upped the ante on the restart putting the Gaels defence under substantial pressure. This was highlighted in them winning seven of their opponents own kickouts in a six minute window, yielding a 1-04 return in this period. Joseph McGann rippled the net when Aiden Davidson won the kickout and found Rowan Danaher, his quick hands put the ball in the direction of McGann who made no mistake with a clinical finish.
This damage effectively killed off the game and was evidence of the North Clare men’s fielding ability plus poor decision making from the Gaels. John McGrath’s men refused to bow out lying down and made the scoreline looked some bit better with 1-03 on the bounce.
Netminder Tristan O’Callaghan made four excellent saves at defining stages of the contest and was unlucky not to keep a clean sheet, elsewhere Dale Masteron’s fielding was very influential for Donie Garrihy’s charges with Joseph McGann, Aiden Davidson and Rowan Danaher impressing. They will now host the Tipperary champions next weekend.
Scorers St Breckans: A Davidson (1-06 4f 1’Pen), J McGann (1-03), C O’Brien (0-01), L Tierney (0-01), C Shannon (0-01), D Masterson (0-01)
Scorers Galtee Gaels: B Childs (0-06 4f), A Condon (1-00 1f), P McGrath (0-02), P Gallahue (0-01), S Clancy (0-01), A Coughlan (0-01).
St Breckans: Tristan O’Callaghan; Daniel Carey, Evan Barrett, Cian Burke; Jack Sheedy, Alan Sweeney, Rowan Danaher; Liam Tierney, Dale Masterson; Maccon Byrne, Padraig Kelly, Conor Shannon; Colm O’Brien, Joe McGann, Aiden Davidson.
Subs: Robert O’Connell for Shannon (46), Pat Nagle for Burke (48) (Inj), Michael Hogan for Sweeney (54), Shane O’Connor for Masterson (58) (Black), Killian Blood for Byrne (59)
Galtee Gaels: Danny McGrath; Eoin Gallahue, Maurice O’Sullivan, Ian Whelan; Eoin McNamara, Sean McGrath, Alan Coughlan; Tommie Childs, Padraig McGrath; Sean Clancy, Alan Condon, Padraig Gallahue; Derek Gallahue, Bob Childs, Sean Casey.
Subs: Shane McNamara for Casey (43), Brendan McGrath for D Gallahue (51).
Referee: Seamus Mulvihill (Kerry)
