Tracton 2-9, Shamrocks 0-14.
Tracton continued to hold the balance of power in the SE Junior A Football Championship following this victory over great rivals Shamrocks at Camden. In a repeat pairing of last years decider, the holders were in command until they had to withstand a late rally by Shamrocks which yielded two unanswered points by Joe Shanahan and Cian Ronayne in the closing stages.
Shamrocks started the brighter and Philip Brady opened the scoring. Tracton soon went in front when they opened their scoring with a goal following a free. Joe Shanahan replied with a point for Shamrocks but Tracton scored the next point. The sides traded points soon after (Ronayne) before Shamrocks scored two unanswered points through Simon McGarry and Cannice Cafferey and the game was level. However, Tracton grabbed that all important second goal straight after and Shamrocks had to start all over again. This they did manfully and despite Tracton scoring two points of their own, Shamrocks played some impressive football coming up to HT and managed to go in level after a high quality half from both teams. Philip Brady x 2, Cathal Kidney, Stephen Keane and Darragh O’Sullivan did the Shamrocks scoring coming up to HT. The second half was very closely fought between two good teams and despite Shamrocks going ahead in the 34th minute through McGarry from a free, Shamrocks just couldnt hold on and Tracton went through to the semi final.
Team: F. O’Neill, J. Tuohy, C. Brady, S. Andrews, G. Ronayne, C. Kidney, M. Prout, B. Sweeney, A. McCarthy, S. McGarry, J. Shanahan, P. Brady, C. Cafferey, S. Keane, D. O’Sullivan. Subs used – S. Collins, P. Lordan.
(Report courtesy of the Evening Echo)
