Belgooly turn on the style

AN excellent start to the second-half was the catalyst for Belgooly to initiate a turnaround and claim the county JBFC title with victory over Charleville at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday evening.

Trailing by 0-8 to 0-3 at half time, the south east side reeled off a pair of points in the opening minute after the restart before a goal from sub Andrew Daly – introduced at the interval – pulled them level.

Inspired by the momentum provided by that fight back and, with the wind behind them as well as having an extra man, Belgooly drove on as Charleville wilted.

Belgooly selector Jimmy Dwyer pointed to the strong belief his side had, even when trailing by five points at the break.

“We’d no doubt in our abilities, we were after playing 18 matches this year and winning 17, so we believed that we’d be able to turn it around.”

With the wind, Charleville began brightly. Two points from Mark Kavanagh helping them to get the game’s first three scores with Derek Murphy in good form, but Belgooly began to find their feet, and soon cut the gap to one.

That was the gap between the sides in the 19th minute as well, Charleville 0-4 to 0-3 ahead, when their midfielder Daniel O’Flynn was sent off for a second bookable offence in the space of two minutes. Despite this, Charleville reeled off four unanswered points before half-time as Belgooly paid the price for not using spare man Jamie Dwyer.

At the interval they sorted things, though, as well as making a couple of other positional switches and introducing Daly for the injured Brendan Hurley. Those changes yielded instant results, Barry Dwyer and Jeremy Coughlan on target to cut the gap to a goal. The latter then won the kickout after his point and fed the rampaging Eoin Allen, who in turn played in Daly and he made no mistake.

Points by Barry Dwyer and Ruairi Dwyer (a free) then had them two in front and seemingly coasting as Charleville’s rhythm had completely deserted them, a repeat of the previous year’s final, when they scored just one second-half point against Kilbrin.

A fortuitous goal in the 43rd minute gave them hope, however, as Andrew Cagney’s shot from the 20m line took a deflection, meaning Michael Murphy could only get a hand to it as it travelled to the net and the game looked to be up for grabs yet again.

It was just a mere blip in the flow of Belgooly’s momentum, though. They responded emphatically with three points in four minutes, from Eoin Allen, Ruairi Dwyer and Derek Murphy, to push ahead again.

Charleville did have another goal chance when Cagney was put in by a Matthew Galligan hand pass, but he attempted to lob Murphy with a first-time effort and the goalkeeper saved well, and from there to the end it was one-way traffic.

The points continued to fly over for Belgooly, and that it took Charleville until the 57th minute to have a second-half wide was more indicative of the action areas than efficient shooting.

In the final minute, Patrick Dwyer, who had been excellent in the second-half, wrapped things up. He was found close to goal by Eoin Allen and sidestepped Anthony Barron before finishing, to leave nine points between the teams at the end.

Scorers for Belgooly: D Murphy 0-5 (3fs), A Daly 1-1, P Dwyer 1-0, R Dwyer (2fs), J Coughlan, B Dwyer, E Allen (45) 0-2 each.

Scorers for Charleville: M Kavanagh 0-4 (3fs), A Cagney 1-1, B Dennehy, B Barrett, S O’Sullivan 0-1 each.

BELGOOLY: M Murphy; D Dwyer, Evan Allen, I Coughlan; P O’Donoghue, J Dwyer, K Kiely; Eoin Allen, B Dwyer; R Dwyer, J Coughlan, P Dwyer; M Tobin, B Hurley, D Murphy.

Subs: A Daly for Hurley (inj. ht), S Dwyer for Tobin (59), L O’Riordan for Kiely (60).

CHARLEVILLE: A Barron; D Cromwell, D O’Sullivan, A McCarthy; PJ O’Halloran, M O’Flynn, J O’Hara; S O’Sullivan, D O’Flynn; J Hennessy, B Dennehy, A Cagney; B Barrett, M Kavanagh, M Galligan.

Subs: J Hennessy for S O’Sullivan (21) J Casey for O’Halloran (half-time), B McCarthy for Dennehy (40), D Murphy for O’Hara (47), C O’Flynn for Casey (51).

Referee: D Shorten (St Mary’s).