Early scores give St Jarlath's the edge

St Jarlath's, Tuam qualified for the All-Ireland Colleges senior football A final for the first time since 1999 when they ended the hopes of Ulster champions St Michael's of Enniskillen in a disappointing semi-final at Breffni Park, Cavan yesterday.

Any doubts about St Jarlath's lack of match practice since they won the Connacht title two months ago were quickly dispelled when they raced into an early lead. The only disappointing aspect from St Jarlath's viewpoint was their inability to punish an obviously weak Enniskillen defence, much more emphatically, especially in the early stages.

St Jarlath's couldn't have asked for a more positive start. Backed by the strong breeze, they led 0-5 to nil after nine minutes; through Emmet Killeen, Nicholas Joyce, midfielder J P Steede and their top scorer Michael Martin.

It took St Michael's nearly 10 minutes to open their account from Ryan Keenan.

The Enniskillen college began to make a much bigger impact coming up to half time, scoring three points in six minutes; but they were guilty of missing two goal opportunities from Damian Shannon and Niall Gormley.

At the interval St Jarlath's led by 0-7 to 0-4 but still had a lot of work to do.

St Jarlath's showing much more determination early in the second half and scored three points in seven minutes from Michael Martin (2) and Damian Joyce. St Michael's now trailed by five points 0-11 to 0-6 with only 12 minutes of normal time remaining.

For the first time in the game, St Michael's began to produce much more flair and enterprise and two points each from Ciaran O'Reilly and Niall Gormley left just one point between the teams as the game stretched into six minutes of injury time. However, amidst great excitement St Jarlath's held out.

ST JARLATH'S: D Dowd; T Monahan, C Monahan, G Rice; D Mullahy, D Blake, D Burke; E O'Cuiv, J P Steede (0-2); E Killeen (0-2), M Meehan (0-5), D Joyce (0-1); C Rowland, N Joyce (0-1), D Warde.

ST MICHAEL'S: M Murphy; S McCaffrey, P Gunn, C Smith; K Murphy, P Sherry, S Burns; S Maguire, N McVeigh; B O'Reilly (0-1), S Doherty (0-1), C O'Reilly (0-3); N Gormley (0-4), D Shannon, R Keenan (0-1). Subs: M Cunningham for S Maguire; D McGranaghan for B Reilly.

Referee: B White (Wexford).