Impressive Douglas move a step closer to their Junior football title target

Carrigaline will be disappointed with their efforts at Shanbally. They barely laid a glove on Douglas for 45 minutes, trailing 1-7 to 0-2 at the break, and only adding another point by the three quarter stage.

Douglas goaslscorer Chris O'Keeffe

Cork JAFC quarter-final: Douglas 1-14 Carrigaline 1-8

IT has been a long-held ambition of Douglas, with its player volume and underage success, to win a Cork junior football title and advance to the graded championships in the county. Now they're only a couple of hours from ticking that box after a comprehensive quarter-final win over Carrigaline on Saturday.

With its own sprawling population, Carrigaline presumably have similar ambitions, but the Carrigdhoun champions will be disappointed with their efforts at Shanbally. They barely laid a glove on Douglas for 45 minutes, trailing 1-7 to 0-2 at the break, and only adding another point by the three quarter stage. 

A late, brilliantly-struck goal from substitute Luke Jordan gave Carrigaline a flicker as they pressed up in a desperate effort to pull off a miracle comeback, but Douglas eased to the finish line as they look forward to a last four place. Their U21 footballers, of which a number appeared in Shanbally, have a mouth-watering City U21 final against Nemo Rangers to come as they seek to defend their county title at the age grade, meaning a disappointing senior campaign may be forgotten by the year's end.

Chris O'Keeffe surged through for their 20th-minute goal as they powered into a nine-point lead (1-7 to 0-1), Carrigaline missing at least four scoreable frees into the dressing room end. 

Defensively, Douglas were especially resolute with full back Donncha O'Callaghan leading in that respect and the ageless Kevin Hayes-Curtin mopping up any danger around him. Early points from midfielder Donncha Reddington and Ryan O'Sullivan were augmented by a two from Harry Quilligan, with the impressive Jamie O'Brien pulling the strings (and scoring a point) from centre forward.

Carrigaline minors were crowned county champions recently and one of their impressive number, Ben Corkery Delaney, added a second point before the break, but they needed a lot more besides to eat in Douglas' lead. Tomás Vaughan hesitated with a gilt-edged goal opportunity, and they needed that, or something akin, to spark them for the second period.

Corkery-Delaney landed a two point free but at the other end Jamie O'Brien launched two impressive frees from outside arc to move 1-11 to 0-6 ahead, and virtually out of sight. Subs Padraig McGrath (point) and Eoin O'Flynn added attacking options for Douglas - indeed their bench has a depth to it that may serve them well in the semi-final and perhaps beyond. 

Jordan's 56th-minute goal for Carrigaline, from outside the 20m line, was eye catching, but the sort of precision and accuracy that the Carrigdhoun men lacked throughout the quarter final.