Glenamaddy/Glinsk U21s finish in a blaze of glory

Glenamaddy/Glinsk 0-14

Headford 1-6

 A massive closing quarter, in which a Micheal Heneghan inspired Glenamaddy/Glinsk outscored their opponents Headford by seven points to one, saw the victors take the North U-21 ‘B’ football championship crown and, more importantly, book a place in the 2017 county final against An Cheathru Rua.

In front of a tidy crowd at Tuam Stadium on Saturday, Glenamaddy/Glinsk showed a measure of true grit to come from behind in the closing spell, with Heneghan, who would finish with a personal tally of 10 points from frees, leading the charge with an exhibition of fine kicking.

Indeed, of their seven points in the final quarter, the midfielder landed five of them – some of which were outrageous efforts from long distances or acute angles. No more so than his 10th point in injury-time, which he curled over beautifully from the left wing. An outstanding score.

There can be no doubt that Glenamaddy/Glinsk were deserving winners but Headford, for their part, will bemoan the loss of influential full-forward Padraic Cunningham. He had lined out for the Galway seniors in their FBD League fixture against Mayo the previous evening, shooting two points before being forced to withdraw through injury.

His loss was a major blow to Headford and one has to question why it was imperative that Cunningham line out in the beleaguered FBD League. In any event, it wasn’t just Cunningham who lost out but, arguably, the other 20 players in the Headford squad.

As it was, they did start this final well enough and by half-time held a 1-4 to 0-5 lead thanks to a fantastic James O’Brien goal. It all came from Glenamaddy/Glinsk coughing up possession cheaply to Cathal Newell around their own 45 before, seconds later, O’Brien delivered an absolute belter to the top corner of Cormac Haslam’s net.

That 18th minute Headford goal wrestled the lead back off the victors – who would not get their noses in front again until six minutes to go – and it had to have struck a nerve given Glenamaddy/Glinsk had spurned three goal opportunities themselves in the opening quarter.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.