Mary’s seniors break new ground for club
By Hayden Moore
ST MARY’S manager Jimmy Callaghan has expressed his delight at seeing his team be the first in the club’s 112-year history to make it to a senior county final after they came back from the brink to beat Fingallians 1-13 to 0-15 in the Senior Two Football Championship semi-final.
“We’ve been underdog’s all year, but getting to this point in our clubs’ history is a great result of hard work because we are a young team,” Callaghan told The Echo.
Looking back on their victory over Fingallians in Parnell Park on Saturday, Callaghan pinpointed his side’s fitness as a key factor in their victory, saying: “we’re never out, we always finish strong in games and that comes down to our fitness.
“We were six down at half time in our quarter-final against Round Tower and we came back, then four down with minutes left against Fingallians. These lads never give up.”
With regulation time up, the Saggart side appeared all but beaten until James Timmins found the back of the Fingallians net in added time to make it 1-11 to 0-15.
The weather had a major effect on the game as Storm Callum came to town, but it had no affect on Blaine Kelly as he opened St Mary’s account from a placed ball.
Fingallians had experience on their side though as forward Niall Tormey intercepted a wayward Shaun O’Toole pass and broke forward to blast over a point.
St Mary’s youthful squad demonstrated plenty of character and chemistry as corner-forwards Blaine Kelly and James Timmins linked up well to get on the scoresheet.
It was tit-for-tat throughout the first half, but it was the Swords side who ultimately went into half-time with a 0-7 to 0-6 lead.
Mary’s keeper Shane Redmond kicked over a 45 to draw the sides level before three points from Oisin Lynch propelled Fingallians into the lead.
The threat of Ciaran Howard at half-forward was too much for Fingallians to handle as he kicked multiple points off his left while Kelly chalked up several off his right.
Nevertheless, Fingallians persisted and points from Cillian Power and Lynch saw them widen the gap to 0-15 to 0-11.
But Timmins came alive in the forward line for St Mary’s as the game entered the closing stages with the 17-year-old nicking a goal after a scramble in the box before pointing twice in added-time to send his club through to their first ever senior county decider.
Looking ahead to his side’s local clash with Thomas Davis in the final on October 27, Callaghan said: “We are once again rank-outsiders and that’s good for us, but we will respect Davis’ because they have beaten us this year already.
“We have won nine out of 10 competitive games this season, and that loss came against Davis. We’re not going there to make up the numbers, we are going there to win this final.”
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