Late point secures U14 Premier 1 football title for Ballincollig after storming Douglas comeback

Ballincollig 1-11 Douglas 2-7

Ballincollig were crowned U14 Premier 1 football champions after a huge battle with Douglas at Ballinlough.

Early on it looked like the Village were going to win easily as they got off to a superb start. But massive credit has to go to Douglas for the way they battled back and probably deserved at least a draw in the end.

Ballincollig got off to a great start and were a point up inside 20 seconds when Shay O’Brien split the posts to score. Two minutes later and another sweeping move saw Evan Stack find the back of the net as Douglas had yet to get going.

O’Brien pointed from a free and Jack Hayes also scored, as the favourites led by 1-3 to no score after five minutes. Douglas started to settle but it took until the 10th minute for them to score, when Emmet Cronin raised a white flag.

But there was no let up from Ballincollig, who were dominating all over the pitch at this stage. Shay O’Brien increased their lead and Liam O’Brien added another as Douglas were finding it difficult to get out of their half.

Liam O’Brien was on target again and with 25 minutes gone it was 1-6 to 0-1 in Ballincollig’s favour. Conor Crowley got Douglas second score a minute later and with 28 minutes gone they were thrown a lifeline.

They were awarded a penalty for a foul on Cian Lehane, which Crowley duly dispatched to the back of the net. David Collins got the last score of the half for Douglas as the Village led by 1-6 to 1-3 at the break.

Cronin got the first score of the second half to put two between the sides as both teams were now playing some top class football. Shay O’Brien got his side’s first score of the second half, with Cuan Connaughton adding another as they stretched their lead to 1-8 to 1-4 with 40 minutes gone.

Another two from Shay O’Brien put six between them entering the last quarter.

Colm Tynan struck for Douglas and now it was 1-10 to 1-6 with four minutes to go. And with a minute left, that lead was down to one when Cian Lehane and Cillian McCarthy combined to set up Hugh O’Sullivan to goal.

A minute into injury-time and the sides were level when McAuliffe pointed from distance: 2-7 to 1-10.

Scorers for Ballincollig: S O’Brien 0-6 (0-3 f), E Stack 1-0, L O’Brien 0-2, J Hayes, C Connaughton, A Jozefowski 0-1 each.

Douglas: C Crowley 1-2 (1-0 pen), H O’Sullivan 1-0, E Cronin 0-2, D Collins, C Tynan, C McAuliffe 0-1 each.

BALLINCOLLIG: R O’Sullivan; C Murphy, J O’Sullivan, R O’Connall; M Fleury, R Creedon, J O’Donovan; E Stack, A Jozefowski; D Jozefowski, S O’Brien, A Hennessy; J Hayes, L O’Brien, C Connaughton.

Subs: J O’Sullivan for J Hayes (38), D Fallon White for D Jozefowski (42).

DOUGLAS: C McElwain; M Daly, B O’Leary, F Rudden; A Forsythe, L Reidy, H Whelan; S Barriscale, C McAuliffe; C Lehane, C Crowley, C Galvin; S O’Connell, E Cronin, D Collins.

Subs: L O’Sullivan for S Barriscale (15 inj), C Tynan for S O’Connell (33), C McCarthy for D Collins (42), H O’Sullivan for C Galvin (52).

Referee: Colm Maher (Buttevant).