Éire Óg League Champions for the first time.
September 1st 2013, Oxhey Park, Watford.
Referee: Martin McNamara, Glen Rovers
Éire Óg Oxford 1-11 v St. Dympna’s 0-13
Éire Óg Oxford the Herfordshire Senior League title by a point against St. Dympna’s and denied the Luton side a fifth title in a row. In an engrossing and spirited encounter an Oxford point, deep in injury time, ensured Éire Óg an historic first title
St. Dympna’s had the better start with Ciaran O Leary popping over a first minute point which was quickly followed by another from Darren O Donnell. Oxford responded with points from Thomas Gaughan and wing back Conor Briody before taking the lead with a free from speedster Piers McGlynn. Three points from Ciaran Gallen put the St. Dympna’s men ahead before Kevin Morrissey fisted a long pass from Mark O Callaghan inches over the bar for Oxford. The game entered a rather scrappy patch and four pointed frees, two for each side, left the Luton men in the lead by the minimum on 23 mins. Cormac Healy scored the best point of the first half from over forty yards out for Dympna’s before the Oxford duo of McGlynn and Gaughen cut the deficit to one. Gallen had the last word in the first half to bring his total to 7 and this left half-time score at 10 points to 8 in favor of the Dympna’s men.
The Luton men tried to turn the screw early in the second half but were wasteful and kicked 4 wides before Piers McGlynn made it a one point game on 37 mins. A purple patch followed for Dympna’s and they kicked 3 points from substitutes Conor Killian and Paddy Flaherty and a free from the irrepressible Ciaran Gallen. Leading by 4 points with 10 minutes of normal time to go Dympna’s looked uncatchable but a series of injuries interrupted the flow of the game and Oxford manager John Gaughen made some substitutions. The cavalry arrived just in time and Oxford began to get a stranglehold on midfield helped by the courageous tackling of Ciaran Coughlan and furrowing skills of Colm Fitzgerald. The clichéd long high diagonal ball caused a goalmouth scramble in the St. Dympna’s square and Thomas Gaughen somehow booted the ball into the net to leave a point in it with three minutes to go. Gaughen pounced again a minute later to level the game and this cued up a frantic finish from both sides. Deep in injury time, Piers McGlynn pointed from 30 yards and, whilst Oxford led the game for only the second time, this proved to be the winning point. Éire Óg were jubilant when the final whistle blew and captain Odran McShane accepted the League Cup which will winter in the city of dreaming spires by the Isis for the first time.
Éire Óg Oxford
1 Ryan Davies. 2 Neil Conway. 3 James Connelly. 4 Eoin O Grady. 5 Ciarán Coughlan. 6 Johnny Harte. 7 Conor Briody. 8 Odran McShane. 9 Colm Fitzgerald. 10 Mark Hickey. 11 Mark O Callaghan. 12 Piers McGlynn. 13 Thomas Gaughan. 14 Kevin Morrissey. 15 Dave Behan. Subs:Danny Nicholls for Neil Conway, JP Doyle for Dave Behan, Stevie Mellon for Odran McShane, Aiden Doherty for Kevin Morrissey, Declan Sweeney for Ciaran Coughlan.
St Dympnas
1. Keighnan Berry. 2. Michael Nevin. 3. Liam Berry. 4. Brendan O Leary. 5. Kevin Caulfield. 6. Connor Killian. 7. Steve Doran. 8. Damien Moloney. 9. Cormac Healy. 10. Ciaran O Leary. 11. Shane Gallagher. 12. Barry Flanagan. 13. Luke Moloney. 14. Ciaran Gallen. 15. Darren O Donnell