AIB Ulster Club Junior Football Championship semi-final
Faughanvale 2-11 Templeport 1-9
DERRY champions Faughanvale blew apart Templeport’s challenge with a stunning second-half display at Brewster Park to reach the Ulster Club JFC final.
Trailing by a point ten minutes into the second half, they threw off the shackles and ripped their opponents apart with pace and power.
This was a game that only burst into life after the break, when both sides opted to place the onus on attack after a cautious opening half-hour.
“We haven’t been in situations like this before, and we had to feel out the game at times,” said Faughanvale player-manager Joe Gray.
“We were a wee bit tentative at times against a strong breeze, but in the second half this team showed that it has legs, and we never stopped.”
Templeport struck for a goal three minutes into the second half, but the Oak Leaf men made a defiant response, out-scoring their opponents by 2-5 to 0-2 in the closing 20 minutes.
“They got a wee bit of a lift when they got the goal and went in front of us, but we never stopped, we kept going, and thankfully at the end we got a result.
“We have a real good balance here between younger lads and experienced heads, and that’s vital at certain times in the game when you have to settle it down.
“But the young lads are absolutely brilliant for us. They run and they run and they run, and they play with no fear.”
Benjamin Kelly had the Breffni men ahead within 15 seconds of the throw-in, but they were rocked by Kevin Martin’s seventh minute goal, finished clinically from Aaron Cassidy’s assist.
Martin added a tidy point to make it 1-2 to 0-2, but the Derry men were frustrated by a massed Templeport defence which forced a series of turnovers and punished sloppy distribution with handy interceptions.
Templeport were also finding it difficult to make headway against a rearguard marshalled by sweeper Odhran McKinney, even when they reverted to a route one strategy, with Kelly as target man in a one-man inside line.
Skipper Ben Kiernan dropped deep to engineer raids, and they did press for a sustained spell, but managed just one score, a Liam Galligan free.
Faughanvale soaked up sustained pressure, during which they lost skipper Stephen King to a black card, to hit their first score in 15 minutes through Joe Gray, whose free sent them in with a 1-3 to 0-3 interval lead.
But Liam Galligan got on the end of a move involving Killian Smith and Eoin Doonan to crash home a goal three minutes into the second half, and the Cavan champions were back in front.
They worked hard to protect the lead, with Galligan knocking over another free, but the stronger legs and experience of the Derry men was beginning to tell.
Eoin McElhinney, McGuinness and Martin stretched their opponents along the flanks, and veteran Gray picked the passes.
It was the player-manager who sent Murray in for a cracking 46th minute goal, and with McKinney now taking up a more offensive role, they displayed a much greater potency in attack.
McKinney fired over a couple of scores, and brought a superb save out of David Shannon, and Templeport had no answer to the desire and intensity of a fired-up Faughanvale side, who finished with a flourish, and points from Gray and Murray.
Templeport finished with 14 men after substitute Kieran McManus received a straight red card.
Faughanvale: D Moore, D McGuinness, M Sweeney, G Fahey, J Curran, S King, A Cassidy, O McKinney (0-2), M McLaughlin, E McElhinney, J Gray (0-3, 2f), M McGuinness (0-2, 1f), K Martin (1-2), R King, E Murray (1-2).
Subs: M Sweeney for S King (BC), S Bradley for McLaughlin, M Devine for Martin
Templeport: D Shannon, B McGoldrick, S Dolan, M Devine, L Morgenroth (0-2), O Duffy, D Raythorne, M Bell, B Kelly (0-2), L McAweeney, B Kiernan (0-1, f), E Doonan (0-1), E Martin, D Maguire, L Galligan (1-3, 3f).
Subs: J Kiernan for McAweeney, K Smith for Martin, K McManus for Raythorne
Referee: R Barry (Down).
