St Brigid's 1-11 Pádraig Pearse's 0-08
On a warm autumn afternoon in Roscommon, Spring was in the air for the St. Brigid's club as a new generation of players regained the Fahey Cup thanks to a six-point win over Pádraig Pearses in this afternoon’s county final.
Manager Benny O’Brien was part of the management team when the Kiltoom club won the All-Ireland club title seven years ago, but just five players from that team remained for this fixture, with four starters yet to turn 20 and two still in secondary school and due to play a county minor final next weekend.
The regeneration project appears to be going ahead of schedule, as this young group blossomed into life and fully deserved their win over the county champions, who simply never got going in a fixture that started out as an arm-wrestle before turning into a procession.
0-2 each at the water break became 0-3 each coming up to the 25-minute mark, when two sublime scores from man of the match Brian Derwin gave St. Brigid's the first two-point lead of the game. Hubert Darcy picked off Pearses’ first point from play in first half injury time however, and at 0-5 to 0-4 behind with the wind set to blow at the backs in the second half, it was still far from a crisis for Pat Flanagan and the county champions.
Their ship was still afloat, but it was taking on water from all sides. Eddie Nolan and Brian Stack were controlling the midfield battle against Conor and Niall Daly, while Niall Carty’s hamstring injury and a general lack of form in the Pearses attack meant that scores were always likely to be hard found.
Sheer doggedness and resolve kept Pearses in the game as they tried to manage and manoeuvre their way through the contest, but that plan fell asunder the moment Brian Stack fired in the game’s only goal, moving St. Brigid’s five points clear by 42nd minute.
Now Pearses had to come out of their shell and chase the game, and that only further played into the hands of St. Brigid’s, who happily sat back and struck points on the break from teenage corner forwards Ben O’Carroll and Ciarán Sugrue to further stretch out the lead.
Pearses were forced to resort to high, hopeful deliveries forward and while one of those yielded a snapshot chance for Hubert Darcy, it summed up Pearses day that his effort from 10 metres out was pulled wide of the target. St. Brigid’s were out of sight, and now the fear for the rest of the county is that they may remain that way for a long time to come.
St Brigid's: James Martin; Pearse Frost, Darragh Sheehy, Peter Domican; Alan Daly, Ronan Stack, Paul McGrath; Brian Stack (1-00), Eddie Nolan (0-01); Eoin Sheehy, Gearóid Cunniffe (0-01), Rúaidhrí Fallon (0-01); Ben O’Carroll (0-01), Brian Derwin (0-04, 0-01 free), Ciarán Sugrue (0-01).
Subs: Donnchadh Gately (0-01) for E Sheehy (48), Robbie Dolan for Cunniffe (51), Rúairí Smith for O’Carroll (56), Conor Gleeson (0-01) for Sugrue (60), Eamon Cunnane for Derwin (60+5).
Pádraig Pearses: Paul Whelan; Shane Carty, Anthony Butler, Gavin Downey; Shane Mulvey, Ronan Daly, David Murray; Conor Daly, Niall Daly; Lorcán Daly, Niall Carty, Paul Carey (0-03, 0-03 frees); Hubert Darcy (0-02), Emmet Kelly (0-01, ’45), Conor Payne (0-01).
Subs: Charles Nevin for N Carty (42), Seán Ryan (0-01) for Kelly (51).
Referee: Kevin Naughton (Clann na nGael).
