UCC fall to The Bailey Pubs

UCC’s second championship outing in three days saw them fall to The Bailey Pubs in the semi-final of the Junior A Football Championship on Monday evening in the magnificent setting of the Mardyke GAA Grounds.  UCC could not follow up their excellent win in the hurling championship from Monday with victory in this game.

UCC began the game brightly and had most of the early possession as The Bailey Pubs had to wait a few minutes before getting their 15th man onto the field.  The first score of the game was an excellent left foot effort from full forward Declan O’Connell.  UCC spurned a number of other chances for scores.

At the other end The Bailey Pubs were far more efficient in front of goal and kicked a number of fine points to move into the lead.  UCC responded with a pointed free from Don O’Connell and a fine point from midfielder Tom Byrne.

As The Bailey Pubs withdrew one forward as a seventh defender, UCC goalkeeper Diarmaid Hallissey was able to find loose players with well-placed kick-outs.  However, UCC struggled to move the ball down the field and a number of turnovers saw chances created for The Bailey Pubs inside line, which in the most were converted.  For the remainder of the game UCC went to the long kick-out which paid greater dividends as Dave Stafford and Olan Casey dominated the aerial battle for possession.

After fifteen minutes the score was 0-04 to 0-03 in favour of The Bailey Pubs the next five minutes was to prove decisive.  An attack right through the UCC defence saw Hallissey pull off a point blank save.  The rebound broke to another on rushing attacker who drove hard straight into the UCC square.  Although stopped, these efforts were deemed to be illegal and The Bailey Pubs were awarded the game’s first penalty.  This was duly dispatched low and hard down to Diarmaid Hallissey’s left.

This stirred UCC into life and a period of sustained pressure saw Don Brosnan and Don O’Connell narrow the gap.  The Bailey Pubs were not out of the game for long and a series of excellent foot-passes the length of the field saw their full forward through on goal and he made no mistake with only the keeper to beat.  In fact, over the next few minutes The Bailey Pubs could have put the game beyond all doubt but a number of further goal chances were spurned or denied by fine saves by the UCC goal minder.

The closing minutes of the half saw the teams exchange points to leave the half-time score 2-05 to 0-06 in favour of The Bailey Pubs.  UCC began the second half with a much improved work rate and through points from Declan O’Connell and Michael Byrne they had narrowed the gap to two points.  This was to be as close as UCC got as The Bailey Pubs dominated possession for the large periods of the second half.  Their continued excellent use of the foot-pass, created the opportunities for their inside line who duly obliged by kicking the points that restored their five point lead.

These scores included one superb right-foot effort from deep in the right corner – the wrong side for such an effort.  UCC replied with Don O’Connell kicking over a close-range free, but these were more than matched by two excellent long range frees from The Bailey Pubs free-taker when frustrated UCC defenders fouled as The Bailey Pubs were continually able to create an unmarked player on the overlap.

With 12 minutes remaining UCC were granted a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty.  A defender for The Bailey Pubs swung back with his arm to strike Don O’Connell as he burst out of the square with the ball following an excellent high catch.  O’Connell dusted himself off and struck the ball to the exact same spot as The Bailey Pub’s first half penalty.  This goal brought UCC right back into game as the score stood 2-09 1-09 in favour of The Bailey Pubs

Although UCC were granted the lifeline it was The Bailey Pubs who responded best.  They now switched to maintaining possession and denied UCC the opportunity to further narrow the gap.  As UCC funnelled back to try and regain possession they found they had few players in an attacking position and generally gave the ball back as quick as they got it.

With five minutes left the game was killed off when a cross-field ball from right to left saw two from The Bailey Pubs unmarked and their left half back side-stepped Diarmaid Hallissey to finish easily to the net.  UCC did manage one more score through Don Brosnan but the final score of the game belonged to The Bailey Pubs.  When the final whistle blew it was they who progressed to the final of the Junior A Football Championship against County Council.

1. Diarmaid Hallissey 2. Fergus Reen 3. Rory Rice 4. Kevin O'Mahony 5. Rob Phelan 6. Olan Casey 7. Eoin Barrett 8. Dave Stafford 9. Tom Byrne (0-02) 10. Anthony Walsh 11. Michael Byrne  (0-01) 12. Don Brosnan (0-02) 13. Ronan Spillane 14. Declan O'Connell (0-02) 15. Don O'Connell (1-03, 1-02f). Subs: Neil Hanley, Denis Lynch, Seamus Coffey