Cloughaneely's last-minute magic secures spot in U-21 B ...

By the time injury time hit, it looked like it was going to be Milford who would advance to the final of the U-21 B Championship, but Cloughaneely had one last trick up their sleeve. 

Trailing by two points on the 63rd minute, it was clear that the Gaeltacht men needed a goal, and it finally arrived when a shot from Patrick Doogan was saved by Shea McBride, with the rebound falling to Donnacha Ó Baoill who fired low to the corner as the ball rolled into the net in what proved to be the winning score as Cloughaneely advanced to the final with a one-point win. 

On a cold and freezing night at the Donegal GAA Centre, it wasn’t a game for the purists with the scoreline standing 0-4 apiece at the break, with Milford hitting the only point inside the first quarter when Shane Black fired over the first point from a free on the sixth minute. 

With a total of seven wides for Cloughaneely throughout the match, they were aware of how wasteful they were in certain situations and no doubt will be looking to rectify that for the final. But their nerves eventually settled on the 16th minute when Blake McGarvey nailed over his team’s first score. 

The link-up play between McGarvey and Ó Baoill in the Cloughaneely side proved to be a thorn in Milford’s side throughout the game, and that was first spotted on the 20th minute when McGarvey nailed in a low ball to his corner-forward partner who bypassed two defenders only to be fouled and landing his first of a 1-6 total from a free. 

Milford replied immediately by landing the next three points in-a-row with Finn Coll, Eoin O’Donnell, and Black all hitting over in the space of three minutes and they were unfortunate not to get a goal when Dylan McGarry intercepted a short kickout from the Cloughaneely goalkeeper but fired the shot straight at Matthew Ryder to save his blushes. 

Cloughaneely nailed the final two points of the half when McGarvey took on two defenders and hit over from distance, while the final score of the half saw Ó Baoill drop in a high free to Carragher Friel inside the Milford box, with the full-forward leaping the highest to punch over the bar leaving the score at 0-4 each at half-time. 

The Gaeltacht men were first out of the traps in the second half when Cathal McGeever won the throw-in and nailed a long ball into Friel who won the free resulting in Ó Baoill to kick over. 

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Milford hit the next two points with Black kicking over from a free, while McGarry wiggled through three Cloughaneely defenders to kick over from distance and under pressure in what looked like the score of the game. 

At this point, Cloughaneely and especially Ó Baoill had their kicking boots on as they took advantage of Milford’s indiscipline which was so different to how they played defensively in the first half. 

The Cloughaneely men eventually took the lead with Ó Baoill nailing two more frees to make it 0-7 to 0-6 on the 46th minute, but Black brought it back level for the sixth time as the game entered the final 10 minutes of the match. 

In what was an intense last couple of minutes, Milford were first dealt a blow when Gavin Riney was handed a black card on the 52nd minute for a pulldown on McGarvey but that didn’t stop Milford from landing a wonderful goal two minutes later when Black fired a low ball into McGarry who allowed the ball to roll through his legs and onto Finn Coll who struck to ball high into the net in what was a great piece of link-up play. 

But Cloughaneely’s power going forward did not diminish with the Gaeltacht men taking advantage of Milford’s indiscipline to hit over two frees from Ó Baoill, but Black replied with a point of his own to give his side a two-point cushion going into injury-time. 

And that’s where it all changed, as Cloughneely ran away with a 1-9 to 1-8 win with Ó Baoill having the final say as he nailed home that all-important goal to give his side the victory and advanced them to the U-21 B final. 

Cloughaneely scorers: Donnacha Ó Baoill 1-6, 6fs; Blake McGarvey 0-2; Carragher Friel 0-1.  
Milford scorers: Shane Black 0-5, 4fs; Finn Coll 1-1; Eoin O’Donnell and Dylan McGarry 0-1 each. 

Cloughaneely: Matthew Ryder; Kevin Boyle, Remy Moran, Ciaran O'Donnell; Josh Scanlon, Seamus Doogan, Caolan McNulty; Cathal McGeever, Ethan Friel; Patrick Doogan, Blake McGarvey, Tomas O Rathalaigh; Padraig Coyle, Carragher Friel, Donnacha Ó Baoill. Subs: Stephen Curran for Friel (10). 

Milford: Shea McBride; Sean Black, Anthony Curran, Conor Houston; Finn Coll, Paul Ryan, Shaun Coffey; Gavin Riney, Eoin O'Donnell; Mikey McBride, Shane Black, Oisin McHugh; Owen McElhinney, Alec McConigley, Dylan McGarry. Subs: Cillian McBride for McElhinney (HT): Liam Donnelly for Houston (37); Peter McCleary for McConigley (50). 

Referee: Kenneth Byrne (Naomh Columba)