St Jude’s U21 footballers went down to Ballinteer in the final in O’Toole Park Photo by Máirtín Ó Goibín
Jude’s edged out in U21 Football decider
BALINTEER St Johns found themselves crowned champions of the Dublin U21 ‘A’ Football Championship following a victory over St Judes at O’Toole Park last Saturday afternoon.
Their victory completed their second success at this level in four years and was only a week after their hurling counterparts had claimed the U21 ‘B’ Title.
Both sides had overcome major adversity on their road to the final. St Johns had managed to overcome a nine point deficit against Ballyboden in their semi final while St Judes displayed immense character coming out on top in narrow victories against Lucan Sarsfields and Castleknock.
The game was cagey to start with, points during the first quarter were in high demand and it would be Joey Quirke who edged Ballinteer in front towards the end of the first 15 minutes.
Judes would respond emphatically however. A free from Eoin Kenny and a James O’Loughlin goal in the 25th minute saw them take the lead in the game and the gap was extended further with Oisin Costello and Kenny contributing scores to give them a four point lead towards the end of the half.
Despite leading 1-06 to 0-05 at half time, Judes had not made the most of their chances in the first half after kicking a number of poor wides and St Johns made them pay within a minute of the second half restarting as Joey Quirke found the back of the net.
Now with the momentum fully behind them St Johns took the lead though Judes refused to fold and huge performances from captain Sean Kirwan and Eoghan Costello made sure that their side remained in contention.
James Maher was another Judes player who impressed as he was given the tough task of dealing with Mark McNally.
Ballinteer continued to push on however with Patrick Coleman in midfield contributing in general play as well as points scoring.
It looked like Judes had gotten themselves back into the game in the 53rd minute as Oisin Gough’s shot seemed destined for goal. It was not to be for the Templeogue team however as it came cannoning back off the post.
Judes now resigned and Ballinteer uplifted, St Johns continued to press on and scored a number of scores at the end of the game that consolidated their win. A 1-16 to 1-10 victory.
