Drumbaragh grab the bragging rights

Drumbaragh advanced to the last four of the JFC when they edged out parish rivals Kilmainham in a thrilling quarter-final at Cortown on Sunday. They had looked set for a comfortable win when they stretched their four-point interval lead to eight points with eight minutes remaining. Kilmainham then lost Petsie Curran to a straight red card, but they subsequently enjoyed their best spell to set up a tense finale. Seanie Bennett and Daragh McNamara gave Drumbaragh an early lead. Kilmainham responded with the outstanding Michael Newman to the fore, but a goal from McNamara was followed by another from James Connolly to give Drumbaragah a 2-6 to 1-5 interval lead. After the resumption both sides traded points with Connolly and Newman excelling before a fisted pass from John Smith set up William Carry for Drumbaragh's decisive third goal. Kilmainham lost Curran before Smith put eight points between the teams, but John Henry's charges refused to give up. Goals from Davy Farnan and Newman reduced the deficit to the minimum, but Smith settled Drumbaragh with another free that sealed victory and a semi-final place against the winner of next weekend's Longwood v St Brigid's quarter-final. Drumbaragh - W Arkins; T Lynch, B Forde, M Kavanagh; E Nulty, E O'Sullivan, N Corcoran; J Smith (0-3), M Smith; P Carry, S Bennett (0-1), W Carry (1-2); D McNamara (1-1), C Carry, J Connolly (1-2). Kilmainham - K Jordan; J Mahon, R Mooney, M Fallon; D Newman, H Newman, G Morgan (0-1); B Lynch, T Lynch; S Butler (0-1), P Curran, S Morgan; M Newman (2-5), D Butler, G Butler. Subs - D Farnan (1-0) for Mahon, J Quigley for S Morgan, B Black for Fallon. _____________________________________________________________ Longwood 0-10 Dunsany 0-6 Longwood ensured top spot in their JFC group and a quarter-final meeting with St Brigid's with this victory over Dunsany at Summerhill on Saturday. Both sides would probably have preferred to have lost this game and avoid the Ballinacree men , but sustaining an unbeaten run was also important and Longwood maintained their great form with a deserved victory over the other qualified side from their group. James Colgan, John Cullinane, Mickey Burke, Karl Ennis and Rory Maguire stood out for the winners who led 0-4 to 0-1 at the break. Longwood - A Holton; C Greene, E Dixon, J Colgan (0-1), B Hannah, V Byrne, J Mahon, J Cullinane, M Burke (0-2), G Ennis (0-1), M Weir (0-1), K Ennis (0-2), W Leonard, R Maguire (0-2), A Ennis (0-1). Subs - K Cleary for Holton, D Maguire for Greene, P Barron for K Ennis, J Cully for Hannah, J Dorran for Leonard. _____________________________________________________________ Moylagh 0-7 Ballivor 0-6 Moylagh produced a battling performance at Simonstown on Friday evening as they negotiated Ballivor and earned a place in the last four. The Moylagh men will now play either Dunsany or Simonstown in the semi-final and will be aiming to produce a more fluent performance the next day. Moylagh trailed by 0-4 to 0-5 at the interval, but they found enough in the second-half to survive and keep their hopes of championship glory alive. Justin O'Reilly scored four points and his performance was crucial to this victory. Moylagh - D Traynor; A Hand, B Geraghty, P Fox; P Traynor, M Quinn, T O'Reilly (0-2); C Fanning, J Melia; S Martin, D O'Growney, E Brody; B Smith, J O'Reilly (0-4), M Corrigan (0-1). Subs - Q O'Reilly for Smith, J Ward for O'Growney, K Clinton for Corrigan, N McAlarney for Q O'Reilly. _____________________________________________________________ Donaghmore/Ash 3-9 Bective 2-10 Donaghmorwe/Ashbourne concluded their JFC campaign at Simonstown on Tuesday of last week with a narrow victory over Bective. Both sides were already out of contention for a place in the knock-out stages, but following their first year in the junior ranks Donaghmore / Ashbourne will be pleased with the victory that earned them third place in the group while Bective will have to contest a relegation play-off. Bective are unlikely to be too troubled in the relegation play-off as they are vastly superior to Drumree, Boardsmill and Gaeil Cholmcille and at half-time in this game they looked like avoiding a relegation scenario when they led by 1-5 to 0-5. However, Donaghmore/Ashbourne improved after the break with goals from Keith Scally, Tony Morgan and Stephen Condon. Donaghmore/Ashbourne - P Durkan; F O Loinsigh, J Long, A Fitzgerald; C Finn, P Finn, P Gilligan (0-2); I Dowd (0-2), E O'Callaghan (0-2), C Field, T Morgan (1-0), K Scally (1-0); R Tormey, S Condon (1-3), J P Lynch. _____________________________________________________________ JUNIOR D Donaghmore/Ash 3-16 Gaeil Cholmcille 0-6 Having fallen at the semi-final stage for the past two years Donaghmore / Ashbourne advanced to the Junior D final with this flattering result against Gaeil Cholmcille at Donore on Thursday evening. The game was closely contested until the final quarter with some quality Donaghmore / Ashbourne substitutions making a decisive difference to the final score line. The Kells men rarely looked like troubling Donaghmore / Ashbourne, but poor finishing left the winners having to rely on a late scoring burst to exhibit their dominance on the scoreboard. Sean Smith, Cathal Regan, Brian Fitzgerald and Declan Mulvey all contributed to Donaghmore / Ashbourne's 0-8 to 0-2 interval lead. Gaeil Cholmcille closed the deficit with a quickfire brace, but with 20 minutes remaining Donaghmore/ Ashbourne took a firm grip on the contest when Aonghus O Maoilmhichil punched to the net. Fionnan O Maoilmhichil added a second goal soon after before Shane Rock put the icing on the cake with a third goal in injury-time. Donaghmore/Ashbourne - S Kent; P Finglas, E Caffrey, N Moran; R O'Donnell, S Keenan, M Mulvey; L Tormey, S Smith (0-1); B Fitzgerald (0-3), D Mulvey (0-2), S Rock (1-0); C Regan (0-3), T O'Regan (0-5), C Carey. Subs - A O Maoilmhichil (1-1) for M Mulvey, F O Maoilmhichil (1-0) for D Mulvey, V Carton (0-1) for B Fitzgerald, D Lawlor for O'Regan. _____________________________________________________________ A HL Killyon 5-14 Na Fianna 2-13 Killyon maintained their status in A HL Div 1 with a crucial victory over Na Fianna on Sunday morning. The Hill of Down men needed to win to maintain their place in the top flight and had little difficulty in achieving that goal following an excellent team display. Killyon - S Quinn; P Ryan, B Perry, D Kennedy; B Quinn, R McKeown, P McKeown; R Massey, T Raleigh; J Mitchell, K Keoghan, D Raleigh; D Ryan, B Pollock, A Gannon.