Hibernians late offensive falls short against Cup specialists

Date Published: {J}

Athenry 2Hibernians 1

Mike Rafferty

IT appears that Athenry just don’t lose Connacht Junior Cup finals as they made it three from three when doing all the hard work early on and then hanging on for dear life as Hibernians rallied bravely in the closing stages in Terryland Park on Saturday night.

In control from the early exchanges as goals by Cathal Fahy and Gary Forde each side of the break gave them a merited advantage, Athenry endured a nervous finale when reduced to ten men after Mark Moran collected a second yellow card on 71 minutes.

The opening half wasn’t exactly a memorable occasion for either goalkeeper, but while Mark Cobey was pretty much redundant on the resumption the same could not be said of Kieran Kilkelly as a series of outstanding saves kept his side in the game in the closing stages. It was a fancied Athenry side who took control of proceedings from the off as Seamie Crowe produced the subtle touches in the centre of the park, while alongside him Gary Delaney picked up a lot of loose ball and distributed it well.

Out wide Alan O’Donovan was giving Paul Loughlin a difficult time and indeed it was from one of his forays on just two minutes that they should have taken the lead, but after beating Cobey at the near post there was no one to apply the finish as Brian Griffin swept the ball clear.

On seven minutes, Forde delivered from the left but Moran directed his close range header too close to Cobey and the custodian got down to hold the effort. Athenry eventually took the lead on 16 minutes.

A soft free kick awarded to Kilkelly in the area saw the goalkeeper launch the set piece clear. A touch from Forde in the centre circle got Fahy racing away through the middle of the defence and with a low effort he made it 1-0 from just inside the box.

All the early play was controlled by Athenry and good covering by the impressive Cathal Walsh denied Moran, before Forde fired into the side net from a tight angle. Cobey almost presented them with a second on 25 minutes when he allowed a clearance off the ground to be blocked by Moran, but Fahy wasn’t decisive enough when the ball broke to him inside the area and the custodian scrambled across his goal to avert the danger.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.