Munster Vocational Schools’ JAFC final – Boherbue CS 1-9 Clonakilty CC 0-10

Brave Boherbue battle back to deny Clon at the death

Boherbue CS 1-9 Clonakilty CC 0-10

By Brian Canty from the Irish Examiner newspaper

Clonakilty CC will wake up this morning wondering how on earth they contrived to lose this Munster Vocational Schools’ JAFC final played in perfect conditions at Kilmurry yesterday after they coughed up a six-point half-time advantage to lose by two. Nothing seemed to be going the way of the Boherbue students in the opening half and as well as squandering two brilliant goal chances before the interval, they were on their fourth free-taker by the 22nd minute after a succession of players wasted 25-yard ‘gimmes’.

Despite those setbacks, they recovered in commendable fashion to eke out a narrow win that was testimony to their never-say-die-attitude. For they had been torn asunder in the early stages as Clon played a brand of football that was as easy on the eye as it was effective and by the quarter hour they looked well on their way – chiefly due to the brilliance of tormentor-in-chief Jack O’Mahony.

O’Mahony helped himself to five points as his side scorched into a 0-7 points to 0-1 lead but that advantage could have been halved had the unmarked Shane Breen found the net on the 30 minute mark when presented with the seemingly simple chance of beating Niall McCarthy from eight yards out.

If the opening half was illuminated by O’Mahony, the second half belonged to Billy O’Gorman and Adrian Murphy for Boherbue. Murphy was shifted from full-back to the attack in an effort to get them motoring and by the finish he had three points to his name. O’Gorman scored the crucial goal on 52 minutes when he took a short 45 to Murphy, took a return pass at pace and drilled low to the bottom corner to reduce the deficit to the minimum, 0-10 to 1-6. Andrew O’Connor and Murphy edged them in front for the first time on 58 minutes before O’Gorman wrapped it up with a 45 on the stroke of full-time.

Scorers for Boherbue CS: B O’Gorman 1-2 (0-1 45), A Murphy 0-3 (0-1f), T O’Sullivan, A O’Connor (2fs) 0-2 each.

Scorers for Clonakilty CC: J O’Mahony 0-8 (5fs), JP Maughan, J Clancy 0-1 each.

BOHERBUE CS: A Casey; G Downey, A Murphy, R Tarrant; P O’Keeffe, P Sheehan, D O’Keeffe; T O’Sullivan, B O’Gorman; S Breen, K Cremin, S Ahern; M O’Connor, A O’Connor, J Forrest.

Subs: D O’Sullivan for S Breen (ht), S Carroll for G Downey (42), A Carroll for M O’Connor (44), S Brosnan for P O’Keeffe (49).

CLONAKILTY CC: N McCarthy; M Lynch, S Condon, J Sheehan; D McCullagh, C O’Donovan, D O’Brien; C Nyhan, C Crowley; D O’Gorman, J O’Mahony, M Crowley; E Ryan, JP Maughan, J Clancy.

Subs: E Deasy for J Sheehan (inj. 25), J Sheehan for M Lynch (40), P O’Regan for J Forrest (50).

Referee: Dave McCarthy (Kilmurry)