Louth GAA club | Young Irelands condemned to relegation play off after loss to the Emmets

The Glen Emmets booked their place in the Intermediate Championship quarter finals as winners of Group one, following this win over Dundalk Young Irelands in Stabannon on Saturday evening last.

With this win, the Tullyallen side and St Kevins advance to the knockout stages, condemning Young Irelands to the relegation play off for the second year running.

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Having trailed by seven at the break, the Dundalk side to their credit mounted a revival, with a wonderful goal by Dean Maguire igniting this comeback.

However, it was all in vain as the Glen Emmets emerged victorious by the minimum in the end, thanks to a late score by Keelan O’Neill to make it two wins from two in the championship for the Kevin Barry/Marttin Morgan managed side.

A key moment in the first half saw county man Conor Grimes rattle the back of the Young Irelands net two minutes before half time, which put Emmets eight points up.

Moments prior to Grimes’ major, the Glen Emmets were indebted to defender Shane Curtis, who managed to smuggle the ball away from his own goal line to deny Young Irelands’ James Prendergast a goal for his side, which would have closed the gap to two points at that juncture, a key moment in this contest.

The first half also saw Dundalk Young Irelands guilty of a noticeable concession of free kicks within scoring range, with Glen Emmets’ James Butler making the most of this early doors. Two early Butler frees arrived either side of an Ian O’Reilly 45 to leave Emmets 0-3 to no score ahead inside 7 minutes.

Young Irelands got themselves on the board when loose play in the Emmets defence saw Ruairi Kelly set up James Prendergast to score from play, before a Jordan O’Donoghue free narrowed the gap to a point.

After getting his hands to a break on the Glen Emmets kickout, Cian Talbot set up Conor Grimes for a two pointer to increase Emmets lead to three.

Back to back Prendergast frees either side of the first quarter closed that gap to the minimum again, before some neat set up play by Liam McStravick saw Cian O’Donoghue level things up at 0-5 apiece inside 22 minutes.

Despite shooting with a wind advantage in that first half, Glen Emmets continued to rely on Butler’s frees as a scoring outlet, as the Young Irelands continued to concede frees within range.

Following a foul on the hardworking Andrew Mooney, Butler put Emmets ahead, before back to back two pointed frees from the same player soon had the Tullyallen side 0-10 to 0-5 ahead by the 27^th minute.

Prendergast’s frees kept his side in the game, as the Dundalk side struggled in attack with that difficult first half gust.

Despite shooting with the elements in their favour, Emmets only managed two scores from 6 shots in open play in that first half. However, their second score was a crucial one.

James Prendergast who did score a goal against the same opposition in a relegation play off two years ago, saw his attempts to force the ball over the Glens goal line thwarted by Shane Curtis, who managed to smuggle the ball to safety, which started a move which led to Conor Grimes break the tackle as he latched onto a Paddy McHugh pass before driving the ball to the net to give the Emmets a commanding lead at the break, despite a late DYI free from Liam McStravick.

A key moment in the game, which also meant that the Glen Emmets had score 1-7 out of their 1-10 first half tally from turnovers.

Young Irelands did not heed a prior warning which saw Grimes break through the tackle before being denied by keeper Ferghal Sheeky earlier on the game.

Second Half:

After the restart, Emmets picked up from where they left off when Conor Grimes broke the line again to fire over the bar.

Moments later, Glen Emmets broke up another attack, which saw a flowing move in transition end with Diarmuid Cullen’s close range shot find the back of the net despite the best efforts of Sheeky, to leave Tullyallen ahead 2-11 to 0-6, barely four minutes into the second half.

However, with the wind in their favour, Dundalk Young Irelands mounted a revival.

The second half switch which saw Cian O’Nairaigh introduced from the bench, moving Cian O’Donoghue into the forward line, paid dividends, with Eamon Morgan’s side winning seven out of 13 Glen Emmets kickouts, with O’Nairaigh, James Prendergast, Joe Mee and Caolan McCabe winning breaks in that area as they pressed up on their opponents who had to weather a storm at this stage.

On the back of this, DYI rattled off 0-7 without reply, with Liam McStravick (2p), Cian O’Nairaigh, James Prendergast (2f), Jordan O’Donoghue (f), as well as a fine strike by Jack Watters, leaving it at 2-11 to 0-13 after 44 minutes, a period which also saw Jordan O’Donoghue denied by Glens’ Ian O’Reilly.

Conor Grimes set up his brother Danny to temporarily break this momentum. But DYI set the cat amongst the pigeons when Dean Maguire sent a missile to the roof of the net to leave just two between the sides with 12 minutes remaining in another move involving Cian O’Nairagh and sub Aidan Sheeky.

Knowing that only a six point win would assure them of a place in the last eight, DYI continued to battle, with another McStravick two pointer levelling matters with 10 minutes left. All to play for.

However, Glen Emmets found the scores when it mattered. After Keelan O’Neill and Cian O’Donoghue traded scores, the final say went to that man James Butler, whose late free sealed victory for the Emmets, with DYI finishing with 13 players following black cards to Aidan Sheeky and Liam McStravick.

Emmets became the second side over the weekend to seal their place in the last eight of the IFC.

Glen Emmets: Ian O’Reilly (0-1) (1f); Emmet Delaney, Keith Boylan, Shane Curtis; Cian Talbot, Evan English, Calum Wogan; Conor Grimes (1-3), Andrew Mooney; Diarmuid Cullen (1-0), Keelan O’Neill (0-1), Paddy McHugh; Jacob Wogan, Danny Grimes (0-1), James Butler (0-8) (6f) (2 tpf).

Dundalk Young Irelands: Ferghal Sheeky; Caolan McCabe, Ciaran Murray, Conn O’Donooghue; Sean Murphy, Joe Mee, Cian O’Donoghue (0-2) (1f); James Prendergast (0-5) (4f), Michael O’Shea; Jack Watters (0-1), Ruairi Kelly, Liam McStravick (0-5) (1 tpf) (1 tp); Jordan O’Donoghue (0-2) (1f), Dermot Mone, Dean Maguire (1-0).

Subs: Cian O’Nairaigh (0-1) for O’Shea (36), Aidan Sheeky for Watters (43), Evan McArdle for Jordan O’Donoghue (62).

Referee: Declan Dunne (John Mitchells).