22/04/2009: Douglas 3-13 Mallow 3-11
(Féile Peil County Semi-Final)


The U14 footballers continue their bid to win 3 in a row Feile titles with a hard fought victory over Mallow at Rathcormac on Wednesday night. The game was on a knife edge throughout and had to go to extra time to produce a winner, Douglas edged it on a scoreline of 3-13 to 3-11 after 80 minutes of tremendous football.


An excellent match played in a sporting spirit with two very evenly matched teams giving their all over the 80 minutes. Douglas had many heroes on the night but Sean Walsh deserves special mention after a tremendous display of skill, pace and stamina at centre forward he ended the game on 6 points.


Mallow started the stronger and had two points on the board in as many minutes. Douglas then registered their first after an excellent passing move with Conor Kingston laying off a perfect pass to Sean Walsh to score. Douglas then took control but were unable to convert their dominance into scores. After shooting a number of wides they suddenly found their range with Sean Walsh scoring his second, followed by an excellent score from Mark O’Connor. When Cian Murphy shot to the net for Douglas it looked like they would pull away. However Mallow fought back and the game ebbed and flowed for the remainder of the first half with Mallow ahead at the break by 1.07 to 1.06.


Mallow began the second half with a point, but this seemed to spark Douglas to life. The Douglas backs were now on top with the half back line of Aran Baldwin, Stephen Beale and Jordan Kavanagh prominent and Kevin Flahive putting in a tremendous display in the corner. But Douglas were finding it hard to put the scores on the board and with 3 minutes remaining were only three points clear. The inevitable happened and Mallow scored a goal to bring it to extra time.


Mallow were now energised and scored two points at the start of extra time without reply.
The hardworking Shane McAuliffe then goaled and it looked like Douglas might again pull away, but the game swung again with Mallow scoring a point to level and then adding a goal to put them ahead. Douglas were not finished and again got on top, Mark Dolan scored an excellent goal and points from Ryan O’Brien and Cian Murphy finally sealed a well earned victory.


Douglas now meet St. Michaels in the final on Sunday evening, venue to be arranged.