Corofin rally to end up convincing winners

Corofin 2-13 Glencar/Manorhamilton 0-9:HOLDERS COROFIN reached their eighth Connacht club title when they saw off the challenge of a Glencar/Manorhamilton team, who were hoping to become the first side from Leitrim to reach the provincial decider in 12 years.

It seemed for a time that a huge shock might be on the cards as Glencar/Manor took the game to the reigning champions. But Corofin’s vast experience proved telling and they did not panic.

Glencar/Manor were well worth their 0-5 to 0-3 lead after 13 minutes and Corofin were rattled.

But then Corofin took over and they held the Leitrim kingpins scoreless for the next 20 minutes and while Glencar/Manor hit back again after the restart, Corofin turned the screw in the second half to run out easy winners.

Corofin are masters at closing teams down and the Leitrim champions managed just two more points in the last 22 minutes of the second half as Damien Burke, Cathal Silke and Tony Goggins shored up their defence.

The decisive score came after 44 minutes when a Ronan Steede effort was saved by Shane Sweeney but captain Kieran Comer followed up to blast home the rebound.

Corofin never looked back after that, tacking on three more points, and while James Glancy and Aaron Hickey responded for a Glencar/Manor side that never gave up, Corofin sealed the issue when Michael Farragher got their second goal in the dying seconds.

COROFIN: D Morris; G Delaney, D Burke, C Silke; D Keane, T Goggins, G Sice; G Higgins, A Donnellan (0-1); M Farragher (1-2), K McGrath (0-2), R Steede (0-2); K Comer (1-3, 0-3 frees), J Canney (0-1), A Burke (0-1). Subs: S Monaghan (0-1) for Delaney (44 mins), J Burke for Steede (54 mins).

GLENCAR/MANORHAMILTON: S Sweeney; D Poinard (0-1), A O’Flynn, P Maguire; J O’Brien, P Gilmartin, J Gilmartin; D Sweeney, A Hickey (0-1); G Hickey (0-1), C Ryan, D Kelly; J Glancy (0-5, four frees), B McDonald (0-1), A Croal. Subs: T McDonald for Poinard (33 mins), A McDonald for O’Brien (38 mins), F McGourty for B McDonald (45 mins), A Sweeney for Ryan (50 mins), S Kerrigan for Croal (55 mins).

Referee: D Hunt (Roscommon).