St. Martin’s 2-19, Glynn-Barntown 1-19
A tragic second-half own-goal had a telling impact as St. Martin’s battled past neighbours Glynn-Barntown in Saturday evening’s tension-packed Pettitt’s county SHC quarter-final derby contest at a dusky Innovate Wexford Park.
St. Martin’s edged matters by 1-12 to 1-10 at half-time before being benefactors of the ultimately decisive own-goal midway through the second-half, when an attempted back-pass by a Glynn-Barntown defender eluded his ‘keeper and ended up in the town-end net to open-up a 2-15 to 1-14 lead.
Although the Killurin-men battled on gamely, they just couldn’t make amends for that cruel mistake as St. Martin’s – the county senior champions of 2017 and runners-up from last year – held out to reach the semi-finals for the third year running.
St. Martin’s got off to a dream start when Jake Firman pointed before Ciarán Lyng capitalised upon an error to slam to the Clonard-end net in the second-minute (1-1 to 0-0).
Glynn-Barntown refused to let their feathers be ruffled though as matters were rather nip-and-tuck for the remainder of the half, although Rory O’Connor did force a masterful save from his inter-county colleague Mark Fanning in the tenth-minute when St. Martin’s were leading 1-3 to 0-5.
Joe Coleman’s accuracy from placed-balls generated the biggest advantage yet for the maroon-and-white as six scores from the reliable no.10 developed a 1-12 to 0-10 margin in first-half added-time.
But Glynn-Barntown found a real spark of inspiration four minutes into injury-time when a long delivery was seized upon by full-forward Shane Wilde to find the town-end net and shave the deficit to a mere 1-12 to 1-10 at the change-of-ends.
Shane Carley’s charges extended their charge on the resumption when they tied on 1-14 apiece after 42 minutes with Gary Moore pointing three frees and Brendan Doyle obliging from play.
But the next few minutes had a telling impact on derby matters, as Joe Coleman put over seventh placed-ball, before Glynn-Barntown had to quickly pick up the pieces after shipping that tragic own-goal.
In fairness, the men in green-and-blue fought with tremendous effort, even switching centre-back John Leacy upfront in a bid to salvage the tie. But it wasn’t to be for them as St. Martin’s instead march on albeit somewhat fortuitously.
St. Martin’s – Luke White; Willie Devereux, Joe O’Connor, Conor Firman; Daithí Waters, Paudie Kelly (capt.), Aaron Maddock; Mark Maloney, Harry O’Connor (0-2); Joe Coleman (0-8, 2 65s, 6 frees), Jack O’Connor (0-1), Jake Firman (0-1); Ciarán Lyng (1-0), Rory O’Connor (0-3, 1 free), Kyle Firman.
Subs: Mikey Coleman (0-1) for Maloney (HT) Darren Codd (0-2) for Kyle Firman (37); Ben Maddock (0-1) for Paudie Kelly (55); Patrick O’Connor for Jake Firman (55); Eoin O’Leary for Daithí Waters (60).
St. Martin’s tally also includes an own-goal.
Glynn-Barntown – Mark Fanning (0-4, 3 frees, 1 ’65); Ger Dempsey, Pádraig Donnelly, David Clarke; Frankie Hynes, John Leacy, Kevin Mahony; Alan Cowman, Michael O’Regan; Rowan White (0-1), Michael Doyle (0-2), Brendan Doyle (0-2); Fionn Cooney (0-3), Shane Wilde (1-0), Gary Moore (capt., 0-7 frees).
Subs: Matthew Doyle for Michael O’Regan (temp, 24-25); Conor Mahony for Shane Wilde (47); Matthew Joyce for Fionn Cooney (51); Matthew Doyle for Kevin Mahony (55).
Referee – John Carton (Monageer-Boolavogue).
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