Glory, Glory – Junior A Football Title returns to Killavullen
October 23, 2023
Killavullen waited until the divisional final of 2023 to play their best football of this year to end up being crowned Divisional Champions for only the fourth time, in their long history in front of a very decent crowd in Buttevant, yesterday
Killavullen opened the scoring from an Eoin Birchill free only for Charleville to reply with a point of their own in the 5th minute. Both sides had the ball in dangerous areas there after but Killavullen played some very smart football to take a foothold in the game in this juncture. Billy Norris, rolled back the years, and displayed throughout the game what an intelligent football player he is, but in just creating space for everyone around him, and doing the sensible thing with the ball, he brought loads of others into the game. He scored a lovely point for us in the fifth minute to edge us ahead, a lead that we never relented. Jamie Magner was next to score, and it was a belter from nearly 35 metres out, after great work in breaking down a Charleville attack, by Cian O Connor, who off loaded to Ronan Barry, and then to Jamie. Liam Cronin typified the Killavullen team on the day, he was relentlessly pouring forward out of his defensive mode assisting his forwards with off the shoulder options, and he scored a great point for us in the 9th minute. We were playing scintillating football at this stage, and in Patrick O Grady, we had a player on fire, on the 10th minute he received a ball out on the touch line, and with a quick show and go, and neat side step, he was away from his man, cut inside and curled a beauty over the bar.
We survived a nervous moment at the back, when one of our kick outs went astray but James made a great save at the feet of the attacker to keep our goal line intact. Sean Bartley and Fionn Magner carried the ball forward at will, in a game where your starting position meant very little, and again in the 11th minute, Eddie Cotter , who was out in front of his man, all day long, won possession, that stretched Charleville, and his little pop pass to Patrick, resulted in another great point. Liam Fox, who was unrelenting in his work rate all afternoon, kicked a great point from distance for us, to open up a commanding lead of six points for us, by the 12th minute, and that was very telling. Charleville tried very hard to get back into the game, but the Killavullen tracking back, and getting men behind the ball was ferocious in desire, and Charleville, for all of their possession at this time, had to resort to lateral passes of the ball, to try and get space, that was never afforded to them. They got a point from a free in the 14th minute, and another from a dead ball situation in the 16th but Patrick answered that again, with another telling point, in the 20th minute, this time, the architects of the score were Padraig Looney, and Eoin Birchill, combining to release Patrick.
It took until the 21st minute of the game, for us to have our opening wide of the match, and that comes down to a great awareness of the time to shoot. Jack Doyle, so often the talisman for Charleville scored a good point for them in the 23rd minute of the half, but for then, until the half time whistle, we kept them at bay, with great work in defence by Paul O Sullivan and Patrick Angland pivotal to that application of work rate and desire.
At the break, the U11 teams from both sides took to the field, and played out a mini game in front of the fine crowd, that was well received by the crowd in attendance. The Pipe Band, from Cullen also belted out some tunes, and that was great to see, it adds to the sense of occasion on the day.
Charleville had a lucky escape after the short whistle, when Eddie Cotter very nearly got the ball over the line, from a position when he was lying down at the time, but the Charleville goal keeper, kept the ball out miraculously. We did get the opening point of the half when Padraig Looney was fouled, and Eoin scored for us, in the 6th minute. We pushed out that lead further in the 9th minute when, again, Eoin scored after Patrick was fouled. The game was not as open as the opening half, but in repelling the Charleville forays, the large Killavullen crowd in attendance were pleased, but a little anxious.
Killavullen then made a couple of telling substitutions, which settled the game. Brian Cotter was sprung for the very hardworking Sean Bartley and Kian Lane for the equally industrious Padraig Looney. Brian did immediately what Brian does, and bounded up the field at will bring the Charleville attackers in his vain pursuit, one run in particular deserved a point, but shooting under pressure, his effort tailed wide. Killavullen prodded and poked at the Charleville defence but without a lot of joy, whilst all the time, the clock was etching away towards the 30th minute mark. Eoin Buckley was introduced for Billy Norris, before Seamus O Mahony came on, for the injured Ronan Barry. Charleville got a score back, in the 24th minute of the half, but we answered that back with a Seamus O Mahony point in the 25th, Seamus was in on goal, but having not scored for a while, he took the sensible option, and fisted the ball over the bar.
We did get the ball in the net, but Kian was adjudged to have been in the square before the ball, and the referee, who was playing advantage on the play called the ball back, and awarded a close in free, that Eoin converted again. The 4th official Justin Murphy flashed up the new electronic board to signal 5 minutes of additional time and Killavullen ate up the time by holding onto the ball and working Charleville around the pitch. In this additional period, we added additional points by Liam Cronin and Liam Fox, two great scores, two players who were instrumental to the success on the day.
Avondhu Chairman Arthur O Keeffe presented the cup, to our very young captain, in Eoin Birchill, in the company of Frank O Flynn, Mayor of Cork, with all his chains of aplomb. Liam Cronin was selected for the man of the match award. Eoin, in his short address, thanked the officials, who did a great job on the day, thanked the Buttevant club for having their pitch in brilliant conditions, despite all of the rain of last week. Eoin continued his address by thanking Charleville for the sporting contest that it was, and thanked his selectors and back room team, and heaped special praise on Dave Brosnan, our manager who has put in an incredible amount of work, with this team.
Well done all.
Final Score – Killavullen 0-14 to 0-06 for Charleville.
The team was
- James Angland
- Cian O Connor
- Fionn Magner
- Patrick Angland
- Paul O Sullivan
- Liam Cronin(0-02)
- Sean Bartley
- Liam Fox (0-02)
- Ronan Barry
- Jamie Magner (0-01)
- Eoin Birchill (0-04, 00-4F)
- Patrick O Grady (0-03)
- Eddie Cotter
- Billy Norris (0-01)
- Padraig Looney
Substitutes
- Brian Cotter for Sean Bartley
- Kian Lane for Padraig Looney
- Eoin Buckley for Billy Norris
- Seamus O Mahony (0-01) for Ronan Barry (injured)
- Rory O Regan for Eddie Cotter
Substitutes / Panel Members Un-used in this game.
- Niall Murray
- Michael Walsh
- Colin Carey
- Conor Griffin
- Ian O Mahony
- Ultan Cottey
- Dominic Bolster
- Charlie Lillis
Buttevant deserved great credit for their pitch, but also for the amount of stewards that they had out in force, at the venue, who assisted anyone and everyone, and also, to Denis O Sullivan, the MC on the day. Denis, a young teacher has a great command of the Irish language and that was very evident in his address, at introducing the teams, before the game.
Killavullen will be playing in the Q-Final of the County Junior Football, on the weekend of the 4th of November, against the Carrigdhound division winners, with the winners to play Mayfield, the Seandun divisional winners, on the 11th of November.
The Carrigdhoun Final is due to be played next Saturday, the 28th in Riverstick between Ballygarvan and Ballinhassig
But for now, we celebrate winning back the Junior A Football crowd, a feat last achieved in the year 2000, then we go back into training, for that county Q-Final.
Cill an Mhuileann Abú.
