Aidan Fawl in action for O’Callaghans Mills. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
O’Callaghan’s Mills produced a rousing eight point second half turnaround to seal their place in the last four of the Munster Intermediate club championship semi-final.
O’Callaghan’s Mills 1-19
Abbeydorney 1-17
Venue: Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chiosóg.
Back in the same venue that saw them control matter for the majority against Clarecastle in the county decider a fortnight earlier, this time the Mills had to show their teeth having trailed for the opening 40 minutes of the contest.
Trailing by three at that stage to the Kerry senior champions, the Mills finally delivered on their superior goal threat aided by a timely slice of luck as a Gary Cooney shot for a point was deflected into the path of Jacob Loughnane to round goalkeeper Conor Bohane and rifle to the roof of the net at 1-12 to 0-15.
Despite facing into the conditions, Sean Doyle’s side were clearly gathering momentum at the perfect time, with Aidan Fawl desperately unlucky to see another goal sighting come back off the post and Bohane’s leg before being scramble clear.
Fittingly, it was their most experienced leader Conor Cooney that soared forward to inch the Mills into the ascendancy for the very first time at the turn of the final quarter, an inspirational score that would see the electric Sean Boyce, substitute Bryan Donnellan, Aidan Fawl and Gary Cooney complete a 1-5 unanswered blitz at 1-17 to 0-15 by the 55th minute.
Francie O’Halloran’s side could do no wrong in the opening half, only hitting the first wide of the contest in the 27th minute on their way to a 0-12 to 0-10 interval advantage. However, they could do no right in that nervy period in which they failed to score for over twenty minutes and found themselves languishing by five.
There would inevitably be a kick from the back-to-back Kerry winners, inspired by best performer Oisin Maunsell whose pinpoint centre picked out substitute Kevin Varian to finish to the net at the back post deep into injury-time to slash the arrears to just two at 1-18 to 1-16.
However, despite an anxious last gasp goalmouth scramble that saw David Egan’s effort somehow kept out by Killian Nugent, the Mills relievedly held on.
It was all so different in the opening period when an unerring Abbeydorney fired the first four points, two from Jack Sheehan by the ten minute mark.
The Mills had plenty of chances but found it difficult to hone their radar and settle into their stride, epitomised by a glorious goal chance for Jacob Loughnane that just squeezed outside the left post.
Captain Aidan O’Gorman finally got the Clare champions off the mark in the tenth minute but despite a trio of Sean Boyce points, their mounting wide count ensured that they were always chasing the visitors who had four Michael O’Leary frees to thank for keeping their noses in front.
Sean Boyce hit the side-netting with a late goal chance while another potential opening for Gary Cooney was expertly snuffed out by Mikey Clifford as a total of nine first half wides hampered the East Clare side by the break when trailing by two.
Michael O’Leary picked off the first two points of the new half to show Abbeydorney’s intent but they would fail to maintain that intensity and a character-filled Mills began to smell blood from a long way out.
While Abbeydorney looked increasingly leggy, O’Callaghan’s Mills were only getting into their stride as inside duo Sean Boyce and Gary Cooney excelled while Conor Cooney and Aidan Fawl began to dominate at the back.
A more clinical Mills soared to 1-5 without reply in a 17 minute spree whereas the wheels rather came off for Abbeydorney as Michael O’Leary began to misfire from frees.
With Waterford intermediate runners-up Tallow surprisingly overcoming Garryspillane 24 hours earlier, it means that there will be a toss to decide home advantage for a semi-final showdown with the Mills in a fortnight’s time.
Scorers for O’Callaghan’s Mills: Sean Boyce 0-5; Gary Cooney 0-4; Jacob Loughnane 1-1 (1f); Aidan O’Gorman 0-2; Darragh Moroney 0-2; Aidan Fawl 0-2; Conor Henry 0-1, Conor Cooney 0-1, Bryan Donnellan 0-1
Scorers for Abbeydorney: Michael O’Leary 0-8 (5f); Oisin Maunsell 0-3; Kevin Varian 1-0; Jack Sheehan 0-2; Calum O’Sullivan 0-2; Michael Slattery 0-2;
O’Callaghan’s Mils
1: Killian Nugent
2: Cathal McNamara
3: Conor Cooney
4: Keith Donnellan
5: Sean Cotter
6: Aidan O’Gorman
7: Aidan Fawl
8: Fionn Hickey
9: Cormac Murphy
12: Conor Henry
11: Darragh Moroney
10: Jacob Loughnane
15: Gary Cooney
14: Colm Cleary
13: Sean Boyce
Subs:
23: Bryan Donnellan for Murphy (37),
22: Patrick Donnellan for Henry (47)
19: Mark Pewter for Loughnane (63)
Abbeydorney
1: Conor Bohane
2: Jedd Maunsell
3: Stephen Egan
4: Mikey Clifford
5: Damien Hogan
6: Ronan Donovan
7: Niall O’Mahoney
8: James O’Connor
10: Jack Sheehan
11: Michael O’Leary
12: Ruairi Ó hAiniféin
9: Calum O’Sullivan
13: Brendan O’Leary
14: Oisin Maunsell
15: Michael Slattery
Subs
17: Daniel O’Leary for B. O’Leary (40)
18: David Egan for Ó hAiniféin (45)
21: Kevin Varian for Sheehan (57)
19: Kian Sheehan for O’Sullivan (58)
Referee: Kieran Guina (Limerick)
