AIB All-Ireland Club Intermediate Football Championship Final

MOY TÍR NA nÓG (Tyrone) 1-10  MICHAEL GLAVEYS (Roscommon) 0-7

By John Harrington at Croke Park

Moy Tír na nÓg resisted a second-half charge from 14-man Michael Glaveys to win the AIB All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Final in Croke Park this afternoon.

It looked like the physically stronger and tactically smarter Tyrone club were coasting to a comfortable win when they led 1-8 to 0-3 after 41 minutes of the second-half.

But the red-carding of Glaveys midfielder Caoileann Fitzmaurice seemed to inspire his colleagues who managed to cut the deficit to four points before a late Moy surge made the game safe.

Apart from that Glaveys second-half purple patch, Moy controlled the game.

They scored a goal after just 27 seconds, so right from the very start they set the tone of the contest.

Harry Loughran fetched a long delivery on the 21-yard-line and popped a perfectly timed pass to Tom Loughran who had made a brilliant run from deep.

The midfielder took the ball at pace and smashed it to the roof of the net in emphatic fashion to give his team the best possible start to the game.

Conceding that goal was a big blow to a young Michael Glaveys team for a couple of reasons.

It immediately put them on the back foot psychologically, and against a Moy team set up to defend in numbers and then counter-attack at pace, going behind so early played right into their opponent’s hands.

It soon became very apparent that Glaveys were going to have a very difficult day at the office.

They were being well-beaten at midfield, were struggling to make any sort of headway against at packed Moy defence, and looked vulnerable defensively to the counter-attack.

Nicely taken points from Ryan Coleman and Harry Loughran put Moy 1-2 to no-score ahead before Glaveys finally got off the mark through Andrew Glennon.

It was a brilliant point by the full-forward, but the pressure he was under while kicking it was a further illustration of just how tightly the Moy defenders were marking.

It would be the only score too that Glaveys would kick in the first half, as their forwards slowly had the life choked out of them by a Moy defence superbly marshalled by sweeper Colm Cavanagh.

At the other end of the field the Glaveys defence was coming under increasing pressure and being forced into conceding frees that were meat and drink to Sean Cavanagh.

Two from him and a brilliantly struck ’45 from Eunan Deeney meant the Tyrone side took a 1-5 to 0-1 lead into the dressing-room at half-time.

Glaveys badly needed a positive start to the second-half, and they got it.

First Andrew Glennon flighted over another absolutely brilliant point from a very tough angle on left sideline, and then centre-forward Stephen Comer hit another classy score on the run.

Their mini-comeback was soon stopped dead in its tracks, though.

Ryan Coleman fisted a nice point on the run for Moy’s first score of the second-half, and then two frees from Cavanagh pushed them eight points clear.

It looked like any faint hopes of victory that Glaveys still had were extinguished when midfielder Caoileann Fitzmaurice was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident.

But they found inspiration in adversity and scored the next four points of the match, all of them converted frees by Glennon.

They were running out of time though and Moy’s tight defence was never likely to cough up the goal that Glaveys realistically needed to pull the game out of the fire.

The victors finished with a flourish as late points from Adam Currie and Cavanagh settled the match once and for all.

**Scorers for Moy Tír Na nÓg: **Sean Cavanagh 0-5 (5f), Tom Loughran 1-0, Ryan Coleman 0-2, Harry Loughran 0-1, Eunan Deeney 0-1 (’45), Adam Currie 0-1

Scorers for Michael Glaveys: Andrew Glennon 0-6 (4f), Stephen Comer 0-1

**MOY TÍR NA nÓG: **Nathan Brady; Patrick Mackle, Tomás McNicholl, Thomas Conlon; Mark Gribbin, Niall Conlon, Eunan Deeney; Colm Cavanagh, Tom Loughran; Declan Conroy, Harry Loughran, Emmet Rafferty; Ryan Coleman, Sean Cavanagh, Adam Currie. Subs: Conall Duffy for Declan Conroy (51), Aaron Donaghy for Emmet Rafferty (59), Diarmuid McKeown for Adam Currie (59), Karol McQuade for Ryan Coleman (59), Kris Kavanagh for Eunan Deeney (59), Ryan O’Neill for Thomas Conlon (63)

MICHAEL GLAVEYS: Darren O’Malley; Neil Morris, Shane O’Malley, Liam Cregg; Gary Patterson, Conor Hussey, David Frayne; Caoileann Fitzmaurice, John FInan; Tom Murphy, Stephen Comer, Dylan Ruane; Sean Burke, Andrew Glennon, Cathal Heneghan. Subs: Tiernan Murphy for Cathal Heneghan (20), James Brennan for Dylan Ruane (ht), Sean Markham for Liam Cregg (61)

Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)

 

Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)