U21 Win Against Buttevant in 2022 Semi Final.


U21 Win Against Buttevant in 2022 Semi Final.

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U21 Win Against Buttevant in 2022 Semi Final.

January 16, 2023

Killavullen and Buttevant played out this U21 B Football Semi Final yesterday, in the splendid Astroturf facility, that is the Banteer Community Sports field, and it only officially opened the day before. More about the facilities later, but Killavullen edged out Buttevant by a solitary point after an entertaining game that could have gone either way.


It was fully 10 minutes into the game before either team registered any score, after a number of misses. Buttevant seemed dangerous in their full forward line, whereas Killavullen had strengths in their quick interchange of passes, which created space.  Both sides spurned a number of chances, before Buttevant got the opening score, from David O Hanlon. Immediately Killavullen responded with a fine movement, that ultimately left Eoin Birchill in space in front of goals, and he sent a nice reply over the bar. Buttevant had a shot come back down off the upright, but Niall in our goals was alert and prevented any further goal scoring threat. We did concede a goal however, when a quick ball into the Buttevant full forward line caused consternation for our exposed backs, and with a quick scuffle of hand passes between the two forwards, Buttevant scored a well worked goal, in the 18th minute. In a tight game, any goal is decisive, and Killavullen did well to recover.


Brian Cotter, Jamie Magner and Liam Fox worked hard to drag us back into the game, around the congested middle third of the field, but with an incisive inside foot pass from Liam, Mark Nagle sent a lovely point over the bar in the 22nd minute. Patrick O Grady was very good on the ball when it was fed into him, and he scored a free for us, in the 23rd minute, to leave only a point between the teams. Buttevant rallied again though, and their combination of Michael O Neill and David O Hanlon in their forward unit, combined for the latter to score another point for them. Still we stayed in the game, and despite a number of wides, we were creating the chances and took one of those from Darragh O Grady in the 29th minute to leave the score at the interval 0-04 to 1-02 in favour of Buttevant.


On the resumption, Buttevant went further ahead with a converted free before Patrick O Grady, who was very influential in the second period got a point back for us, from a dead ball situation. As with the opening half, scores were at a premium, and Patrick equalised for us, after good initial work from Ronan Barry and Seamus O Mahony allowed Patrick to get free. So 14 minutes gone in the game, and the two teams on the same score. We went into a lead in the 15th minute after Patrick was fouled after a good run from Kian Lane, and we sprung Rory O Regan from the bench to replace Mark Nagle.


The game was held up for several minutes while Michael O Neill from Buttevant was attended to, after he fell awkwardly, and we wish this fine player, a speedy recovery from what looked like a nasty ankle injury. We also had to replace Eoin Birchill, with Ultan Cottey around this juncture. In a rejigged Killavullen formation, Colin Carey was introduced for Cian O Connor.


Patrick kicked a splendid point from distance after a clever exchange with Fionn Magner brought him in closer to the goals, from a far out free that would have been beyond his range and the same player kicked another splendid point in the 26th minute of the game, to stretch out our lead to 3 points. Buttevant rallied and scored a converted free in the 27th minute, and got another point back deep into injury time, but our full back line of Fionn, Sean Bartley and Michael Cagney held resolute and did not cough up any goal scoring threats, to leave Killavullen winners by a solitary point at the end, 0-09 to 1-05.


TEAM:

1.Niall Murray

2.Sean Bartley

3.Fionn Magner

4.Michael Cagney

5.Cian O Connor

6.Eoin Birchill(0-01)

7.Brian Cotter

8.Liam Fox

9.Ronan Barry

10.Darragh O Grady (0-1)

11.Jamie Magner

12.Kian Lane

13.Patrick O Grady (0-6, 0-04F)

14. Seamus O Mahony

15. Mark Nagle (0-1)


SUBS:

Ultan Cottey for Eoin Birchill, Rory Regan for Mark Nagle, Colin Carey for Cian O Connor  


Killavullen play Mitchelstown in the final next, at a date and time, to be arranged, and hope to have a number of players, who were in Dublin yesterday, supporting Conor Shanahan in the Red Bull Show with Red Bull Racing bringing a Formula One spectacle to the North Wall Quay in Dublin.


The Banteer Community Sports field and Park was officially opened on Saturday, the 14th  which is a huge flippant to the local area, for which they deserve enormous kudos.

The multi-sports complex is a community-owned facility with a full-size Astro turf GAA pitch, pavilion and event space to serve sports clubs, schools and individuals in the Duhallow area, and beyond. No pitch was available in the Avondhu region yesterday, so both clubs agreed to play the game, in this setting.

The centre also encompasses a great hard-core walk around the facility, fantastic car parking spaces, a café, museum, and remote working hub.

Over Six hundred and forty thousand Euro’s was generated by  fundraising work by the community, and with an extra €1.3 million given to the project under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, and additional State funding, from other sources, the overall bill came in just shy of 2.2Million

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