Killarney Legion 1-16 Glenflesk 2-10
Whatever was said in the dressing room at the interval certainly worked a treat as the Legion team that played in the second half bore little resemblance to the one that played the opening half. With Glenflesk in control and leading 2-7 to 1-5 something had to give and so it proved as a Finbarr Murphy inspired comeback saw them advance to the quarter finals where they will play the winners of the Spa and Firies clash. Finbarr helped himself to ten points and when the need was greatest Luke O’Donoghue also chipped in with some vital scores.
The story of the first half in Direen was a tale of two quarters. The opening belonged to the home side as points from Finbarr(0-3) and Shaun Keane opened up a 0-4 to 0-2 advantage. Peter Mc Carthy was clean through soon after only to be upended in the square and referee Brian Fleming pointed to the spot. The same player dusted himself off to slot home the spot kick but strangely Legion became subdued and Glenflesk grew into the game. So much so that they outscored their opponents by 2-5 to 0-1 in the second quarter. That left the half time score at 2-7 to 1-5.
The second half revival was kickstarted by Peter McCarthy within the first minute and then Finbarr reeled off four points without reply from the visitors to draw the sides level. Glenflesk finally stopped the rot with a point but Podge O’Connor with a fisted point and Finbarr with another nudged Legion one up. Luke O’Donoghue then made two timely interventions kicking two vital scores but Glenflesk kept the game ticking away with another. Darragh O Doherty stole up field to land a beauty off the left but again Glenflesk replied to leave it a two point game with the finish line in sight. But fittingly Finbarr Murphy, who scored off both left and right, had the final word to make it a three point win on a 1-16 to 2-10 win.
TEAM.. Robert Osborne, Darragh O Doherty(0-1), Sean McCarthy, Peter O Sullivan, Darragh Fleming, Kieran O Donoghue, Alan Moriarty, Danny Sheehan, Shaun Keane(0-1), Peter McCarthy(1-1), Stephen Flattery, Podge O’Connor(0-1), Finbarr Murphy(0-10), Luke O Donoghue(0-2), Tadhg Doolan.
Subs..Callum O’Grady for Kieran O Donoghue, Bryan Griffin for Tadhg Doolan, Mark Heffernan for Stephen Flattery. Colm O Cuiv,Tom Cronin, Ian Prendergast, Robert Lucey
Referee Brian Fleming.