Aghaloo Reach Decider

Saturday 28.09.2024

Championship Football

Aghaloo 1-14 Glenelly 0-7

The final scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story of this Junior championship semi final as Aghaloo justified their favourites tag to get past a battling Glenelly side at Healy Park on Friday night to set up a final date with neighbours Killeeshil.

In the first half the winners misfired in front of the posts and were forced to play second fiddle to a Glenelly side who were more than up for the fight. The second half though proved to be a totally different story as Aghaloo at last got into their stride with eleven unanswered points either side of the break as they restricted their opponents to just a single point in the second period. The game was only thirty seconds old when Glenelly keeper Conor McAneney pulled off a brilliant save to deny Niall McElroy a goal. Ronan O’Kane and McElroy swapped points before Glenelly got on top. Aodhan McConnell, Lorcan McCullagh and O’Kane all landed points as they moved four clear. Tiarnan Donnelly had the final say of the half with a superb score with the outside of his boot but it was Glenelly who deservedly led 0-6 to 0-3.

Whatever was said to Aghaloo at the break certainly had the desired affect in the second half as they assumed complete control with Jody McGlone and GO POWER man of the match Conor Mullen to the fore. McGlone opened the scoring and a Donnelly brace levelled matters before corner back Gary O’Gorman fisted them in front and they never looked back. McGlone knocked over a “45” before O’Gorman got his second with Miceal Muldoon and Ruairi McGlone also on target.

An outstanding team move resulted in a fisted point from Harry McGinn before Garret O’Neill got what proved to be Glenelly’s only second half score in the 57th minute. In the next attack though Aghaloo put the icing on the cake when they turned over their opponents for McElroy to unselfishly offload for substitute Niall Henderson to grab the only goal of the game before McElroy concluded the scoring.