Barntown 3-8 Rathangan 1-8

A first half purple patch of scoring for Barntown was the difference this year in the Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Rackard League Roinn A boy’s football final. It was a historic night for Barntown as this was their first football final since going as a single school entity. Standing in their way was a Rathangan team who were very experienced in playing in recent ‘A’ finals and determined to claim a major win of their own.

Barntown were a scoring threat from the start of the match and could have had two early goals only for the post and crossbar denying them. Despite this early promise, after ten minutes and a handful of wides they only had a Liam Donoghue point from a free to show for their efforts. Rathangan on the other hand held a slender lead thanks to points from Páidí Doyle and Shane Ryan.

Fourteen minutes into the game, Barntown finally began to yield some scores that their efforts deserved and these scores would prove crucial to winning the match. Corner Forward Daniel Brazzill did well to attack at speed and set up Patrick Berry for a goal. Seconds later, Will Carroll-Hayes kicked in a long range free that somehow emerged from the mist to slip past everyone into the net. Captain Callum McDonald then snuck in with a point to put the Barntown boys six points ahead. Barntown continued this run of good form in the ensuing minutes and scored three further points to pile more misery on their opponents. Barntown’s space and speed in attack was scintillating, particularly down the left flank.

Rathangan dug deep and began a noble comeback before half time. Their two corner forwards got important scores to reduce the lead back down to four. Justin McMahon put over a two frees and Conor Stone Walsh was first to pounce on a rebound and grab the vital goal that his team needed. Rathangan could have inflicted more damage had Barntown goalie Darragh Murphy not saved a penalty before the break.

The second half was much more in Rathangan’s favour. Finn Ryan was excellent as he took the Barntown defence on. Once more, Darragh Murphy denied Rathangan from the penalty spot to keep his team ahead but he couldn’t stop the brilliant points from Shane Ryan and Cian Walsh. Barntown were living off scraps and had to be content with scores from Patrick Berry and Sean Cooney to keep their lead intact. When Finn Ryan and Andrew Moran brought the gap back down to a goal with five minutes remaining, it looked like Rathangan could just about to nick it in the end.

Barntown didn’t cough up any more chances to tempt their opponents however and goalkeeper and man-of-the-match Darragh Murphy ensured that the door remained firmly shut. Corner back Josh Murphy started a fantastic team move up the field that ended with Fionn O’Callaghan nabbing a goal and this would prove to be the cherry on top for the Barntown boys on a historic evening.

Barntown: Darragh Murphy, Josh Murphy, Alex Breen, Kevin Rowe, Cian Turner, Conor Lyne, Cian White, Will Carroll-Hayes, Sean Cooney, Patrick Berry, Ferdia Reynolds, Callum McDonald, Aaron Nolan, Liam Donoghue, Daniel Brazzill, Aaron Murphy, Paddy O’Leary, Joe Gilhooly, Lughaidh Hayden, Fionn O’Callaghan, David Plummer

Rathangan: Jack Kelly, Bobby Reville, Dylan Moran, Mogue Barry Cleary, Eoin McMahon, Finn Ryan, Cian Walsh, Paidi Doyle, Liam Berry, Shane Ryan, Andrew Moran, Ben White, Justin McMahon, Cathal Murphy, Conor Stone Walsh, Aidan O’Brien, Cillian Donovan, Darragh Sinnott, Dara Browne, Adam Duggan, Ruairi Flannery, Conor Kennedy, Jack Martin, Tristan Odlum, Liam Philips, Aidan Brennan, Kevin Byrne, Robert Moore, Eoin Browne