Dalton steers Fenagh to victory
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ALL THE action was packed into the second half of Tuesday's under 21 FC 'B' final in Dr. Cullen Park where it boiled down to a tale of two No 14s, the most influential of them Fenagh's Martie Dalton who finished top scorer and man-of-the-match.
It was a stuttering opening 30 minutes with Fenagh going three up with scores from Gary Dillon (2 frees) and Jason Canavan, but they went off the boil as their only score for 27 minutes, a goal from Dalton in the 24th minute, keeping them in the picture.
Craig Wall had transferred the ball to his full-forward who left-footed a fine shot from the left of the square at the dressing-room end to see them 1-3 to 0-3 at the break after Darragh Foley (free), Brendan Fanning and Colm Quigley replied at the other end in the 16th, 19th and 28th minutes.
The winners streaked ahead in the 34th minute when Aidan Murphy moved onto a ground ball on the right and thumped a low shot inside the left post, and Dillon added a converted free.
They were not prepared for the Rangers retaliation of 2-2 between the 39th and 44th minutes to take the lead.
Fanning ended good play by Gary Nolan and Foley with a low shot to the net while Quigley took a Foley free in, turned on a tanner and fired a very good shot to the rigging.
The game was on fire at this stage with Fenagh ending an unproductive ten minutes (indeed only a Dillon free breaking a 25 minute spell) when Dalton beat Eoin O'Byrne on the left to score his second goal and put Fenagh noses in front again.
The temperature was rising when Quigley pointed the equalising free, but the winners hit a golden four minutes with points from Tomas Kinsella, Dillon (free) Dalton and Michael Murphy to all but floor the greens.
There were few credits on offer in a very disappointing opening half but Fenagh regrouped around the play of John Hughes, Miceal Ryan, Sean Murphy, Tomas Kinsella, Dillon Michael Murphy and Dalton in the second.
Rangers had several shots at goal blocked and John Murphy pulled an effort across the goal early in the play, while the same player might have forced a penalty in the third quarter when winning a delivery in from John Brennan only to see a free given in the other direction.
Burrin depended mainly on Jamie Connolly, O'Byrne, Robert Davis, Darragh Foley, Nolan and Quigley for their scores but could not string enough passes together to beat the defence often enough.
The teams shared 40 frees with the winners hitting only three first half wides to the losers' eight.
- PAUL DONAGHY
