Clinical Mount Sion march into decider as Lismore fail to ignite

Mount Sion 4-15 Lismore 2-8

When these arch-rivals met in an earlier round, Mount Sion came through by the narrowest of margins. No such drama or excitement this time, however.

There was a massive morale-booster for Mount Sion before the game when Ken McGrath declared himself fit to line out at midfield, where the injured Kenny Stafford was a conspicuous absentee.

McGrath was an influential presence throughout, but then cruelly went over on an ankle in the closing quarter and hobbled off to leave his participation in Sunday week’s final against Ballygunner in serious doubt.

Lismore’s collapse was as complete as it was unexpected. They began promisingly enough and twice eased in front early on. However, they flattered to deceive. The champions still have room for improvement, but they were very much up for this one.

Lismore were in front inside 12 seconds when John Heneghan pointed. They should have stretched that advantage but Eoin Bennett and Dave Howard shot bad wides from good positions.

Ken McGrath had the champions level on six minutes with a prodigious score, but Dan Shanahan restored the Lismore lead with a quality point. Early lively stuff, with the fans settling in for more of the same.

But what a let-down for them. Once Barry Browne scored a softish goal in the 9th minute the game began to slip away from the challengers. Browne scored another goal on 20 minutes and that opened up an intimidating eight point gap.

Eoin Bennett briefly threw Lismore a lifeline when he goaled in the 30th minute, but within seconds Daniel Kelly, just seconds in the game as a blood substitute for Eoin McGrath, rattled their net.

His brother, Eoin, pointed a free to leave it 3-11 to 1-3 at the interval and that effectively settled it for Mount Sion.

Whatever hope Lismore may have had of dramatically turning this semi-final on its head dissipated completely within three minutes of the restart when full-forward Sean Daly was sent packing for a second yellow card offence.

Sean Ryan’s goal in the 46th minute had many of the fans scurrying for the exits and missing out on Lismore’s second goal by Dan Shanahan. It was a super score, but not nearly enough to change the pattern of a game now tamely ebbing to its inevitable conclusion.

Tony Browne was a commanding presence all through at the heart of a confident Mount Sion defence, and goalkeeper Ian O’Regan’s display will be remembered most for a point- blank save from Heneghan on the quarter hour when Lismore so badly needed a goal to get back into contention.

It certainly wasn’t Lismore’s day, best exemplified by the sending off of Daly and the subsequent retirement of county star Dave Bennett. It was left to Dan Shanahan to plough something of a lone furrow on a day when they creaked and ultimately collapsed in far too many areas of the field.

Scorers - Mount Sion: B. Browne (2-3); E. Kelly (0-7); D. Kelly (1-1); S. Ryan (1-0); K. McGrath (0-2); E. McGrath, M. White (0-1) each.

Lismore: D. Shanahan (1-4); E. Bennett (1-0); J. Heneghan (0-2); W. Cunningham, J. Shanahan (0-1) each.

MOUNT SION: I. O’Regan; J. O’Meara, A. Kirwan, B. Flannery; J. Cleere, T. Browne, B. Greene; R. McGrath, K. McGrath; E. Kelly, M. Frisby, E. McGrath; M. White, S. Ryan, B. Browne. Subs: D. Kelly for K. McGrath (inj), K. Flynn for Kirwan.

LISMORE: B. Landers; M. O’Sullivan, J. O’Connor, P. Fennessy; S. Kearney, S. Prendergast, W. Cunningham; D. Howard, D. Bennett; J. Shanahan, D. Shanahan, P. Prendergast; E. Bennett, S. Daly, J. Heneghan. Subs; E. Quann for Kearney, D. O’Gorman for D. Bennett (inj), M. Prendergast for Fennessy.

Referee; Pat Moore, Abbeyside.