Glenswilly on fire to dispose of Malin in U-21B semi-final

Glenswilly overwhelmed Malin at Hibernian Park to make the U-21B Championship final with minimum fuss.

Glenswilly 4-16
Malin 0-3

The previous weekend, Adrian Glackin’s side were victors over Naomh Padraig by a single point in their quarter-final, while Malin had a similarly narrow success against Cloughaneely.

With little expected to be between the pair on a cold and fresh early afternoon alternation on the border, what actually transpired was the total opposite. Malin would feel they didn’t do themselves justice and Glenswilly might be from the school of thought that they did very little wrong.

Both would be right enough in their theories, although Glenswilly will be well aware that semi-finals - regardless of how good or bad you are - are simply for winning. They’ve still a step on the ladder to climb come the final.

They won the first half by a margin of 11 points - 2-7 to 0-2 - and although the fizz had long since gone from the contest in the second were 14 points the better side then. Malin, by then, just wanted to head up the road.

Right from the off, Glenswilly were on it, with the attack clicking into gear and their defence forcing Malin to primarily play in front of them, before gobbling up the turnovers.

A sixth minute goal from Conor McGinty, who started brilliantly and fisted home following good build-up play by Donal Gallagher, Jack Gallagher, Emmet O’Boyle and then Daith Gildea, made for a 1-1 to 0-0 lead.

Kealan Dunleavy and Darragh Enright were dominating the midfield exchanges and a second goal almost came to the latter on 12 minutes, only to see his shot deflect onto the post and go out for a 45.

However, that was only a temporary juncture for the Malin team, who did concede a second in the 20th when Gildea held off a defender to claim a Jack Gallagher pass and plant the ball past Ben Miller.

That put Glenswilly into a 2-4 to 0-0 lead and they added scores from Dunleavy and Gildea to go 12 up before Malin got off the mark on 27 minutes through a David Gallagher free. Dunleavy for Glenswilly and a free from Malin’s Josh Conlon rounded off the first half scoring.

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Conlon would open the second half with another free but that would be his side’s last score and Glenswilly ruthlessly continued their business. A third goal came from Gerard Shields on 35 minutes when he put the final touches on some build-up by Sean Gallagher and O’Boyle for a 3-8 to 0-3 lead.

Malin lost centre-back Michael Walsh to a black card on Jack Gallagher, although that barely mattered on the face of it. Substitute Gary Kelly came on and kicked two late scores, while another - Darragh McFadden - struck Glenswilly’s fourth goal on his first appearance of the campaign.

Glenswilly scorers: Daith Gildea 1-3, 1f; Gerard Shields 1-2; Conor McGinty 1-1; Kealan Dunleavy 0-3; Darragh McFadden 1-0; Gary Kelly 0-2; Jack Gallagher, Darragh Enright, Oisin McDaid, Emmet O’Boyle, Sean Collum, 0-1 each.
Malin scorers: Josh Conlon 0-2, 2f; David Gallagher 0-1.

Glenswilly: Caolan Curran; Jake Kelly, Sean Collum, John Lapsley; Sean Gallagher, Jack Gallagher, Oisin McDaid; Kealan Dunleavy, Darragh Enright; Gerard Shields, Emmet O’Boyle, Jamie McCauley; Daithi Gildea, Conor McGinty, Donal Gallagher. Subs: Mark Bonner for S Gallagher (43), Gary Kelly for Enright (46) Luke Toye for Gildea (48) Peadar Gallagher for McCauley (50), Darragh McFadden for McGinty (51).
Malin: Ben Miller; Matthew Mullarkey, Adam McGonagle, Mac McLaughlin; Patrick McLaughlin, Michael Walsh, David Gallagher; Taylor Bonner, Peter McCallion; Luke Rudden, Josh Conlon; Ben Curley, Connor O Neill, Darragh Douglas, Calvin White. Subs: Ryan McGeoghegan for White (40); Jamie McDevitt for McCallion (48); Jamie McLaughlin for Patrick McLaughlin (52); Niall Gallagher for D Gallagher (54); Darragh O’Connor for Rudden (54)
Referee: Marc Browne (Four Masters)