Finn Harps 2
Drogheda United 0
(after extra-time, Finn Harps win 2-1 on aggregate)
Alan Foley reports from Finn Park
A GOAL TWO minutes into the second period of extra-time by Harry Ascroft was enough for Finn Harps to secure their Premier Division status for 2020.
The Australian bundled home a corner from Tony McNamee in a crowded penalty area in tonight’s dramatic promotion-relegation play-off second leg at Finn Park.
Ollie Horgan’s side were chasing a 1-0 deficit after a 92nd-minute goal by Chris Lyons gave Drogheda a slender lead leaving United Park on Monday night.
A goal inside of seven minutes settled the home support in the crowd of 2,113 when Mark Russell tucked home a header from close range following a cross by Ruairi Harkin.
The hosts, in miserable conditions, created all of the few chances there were in the first half. Russell, on 20 minutes, was leaning backwards as he could only head over the crossbar from a corner by Mikey Place.
Then, five minutes before the break, Sam Todd had a header wide of the post when again a placed ball was the best form of creation for Harps; this time it was Mark Timlin who delivered.
Drogheda didn’t test Mark Anthony McGinley in the Harps goal at all in the first 45 minutes, with Lyons ploughing a lonely furrow up top on his own, as the sides went in 1-1 on aggregate at the break.
There was significantly more urgency from the visitors after the restart, helped by the introduction of Adam Wixted . The closest they came in the third quarter was when a cross from Lyons was just inches too high for Mark Doyle on the hour mark. Doyle, five minutes afterwards, draw a save down low from McGinley.
That seemed to waken Harps and in their next attack, Place hit the post from two yards after Raff Cretaro teed up Russell. The Paisley native’s drive was low and hard and Place, on the floor, couldn’t redirect the ball past Luca Gratzer, who had got behind the initial effort.
Doyle stretched for an 84th-minute header from a long ball forward by Luke McNally and got the slightest touch, only for McGinley to save comfortably down low.
With so much at stake, it was nervy and jittery in places on an ever-worsening pitch and the stadium announcer did his bit before the beginning of extra time by reminding those who parked in Aldi next door that the car park would be locked from 10pm on.
The first period of extra time produced nothing of note, before Ascroft managed to break Drogheda in the 107th minute.
The Louth team threw all they could in the closing minutes of extra-time, with Todd making a last-ditch tackle in injury time to deny Jordan Adeyemo and Harps managed to frantically clear the corner.
Finn Harps: Mark Anthony McGinley; Harry Ascroft, Keith Cowan, Sam Todd; Jacob Borg, Ruairi Harkin (Tony McNamee 94), Gareth Harkin, Mark Timllin, Mark Russell; Raffaele Cretaro (Mark Coyle 90 (Daniel O’Reilly 104)); Mikey Place (Nathan Boyle 73)
Drogheda United: Luca Gratzer; James Brown, Luke McNally, Kevin Farragher, Conor Kane; Stephen Meaney (Adam Wixted half-time), Luke Heeney, Mark Hughes (Jordan Adeyemo 97), Sean Brennan (Jamie Hollywood 61), Mark Doyle; Chris Lyons.
Referee: Neil Doyle
It’s Rugby World Cup final week! On the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly, Murray Kinsella joins Gavan Casey and Sean Farrell to preview Saturday’s showdown between England and South Africa.
Stupid idea to move minors to u17. Far too much of a gap between 17and 21 year olds. Would end up losing more players to other sports at the critical 18-20 age bracket. Minor championship is fantastic the way it is please don’t touch it.
RE plan for minor to be u17 whats happens to u16. Does this also mean that u21 is only open to those above 19.
I agree with nearly all their ideas.
Why not have the League Finals on St. Patrick’s Day?
Their reasoning for moving the Minor grade is sound. I would imagine they’ll move to an under 20 grade too, this would probably mean less clashes with senior games.
Why not play the Inter-Provincials around the time of the All-Ireland quarter finals or semi finals? With only a few counties still in the All-Ireland and club championships notoriously slow to get going there will be many inter county standard footballers willing to play top class competition.
Players just missing the cut in their home county should definitely be placed in a draft from which the weaker counties can pick. 4 players for Division 4 counties, 3 for Division 3 counties. After two seasons the players should be allowed reapply for their native county or else extend their draft period by another year.
A draft system similar to that in American sports is the obvious way to bolster the weaker counties. Keep the draft players within their native province to cut down travel times, I can’t see an issue with a couple of Dubs playing with Carlow for two years, Mayomen with Leitrim or Corkmen with Waterford. The players involved get to play in high quality competition and bring that experience back to their native counties, everybody’s a winner.
I’ll outline how the FRC could fix the Football Championships below. Eugene McGee could drop me a line and we’ll hammer out the finer details together!
The optimum system for the All-Ireland Football Championship should be:
A) Get rid of the January/February tournaments, move the League forward with the top 2 playing a League final in March.
B) The All-Ireland C’ship should be played like the World Cup. 33 teams in 7 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. Seed the teams according to their finishing positions in the League, thereby linking the League and C’ship. Play the 3(4) round robin stage matches of the All-Ireland at neutral venues (except for New York and London who should play their matches at home) in April and May.
C) The 4 Provincial C’ships should be straight knock-out. They should be played in May/June, it may be necessary for the preliminary rounds of the Ulster and Leinster C’ships to overlap with the round robin stage of the All-Ireland. These titles remain a valid chance for meaningful silverware for all counties.
D) With the Provincial titles decided the All-Ireland C’ship Round of 16 takes place in late June, group winners getting the choice of home venue. Two weeks later the 1/4 Finals are held at neutral venues. Two weeks later the Semi Finals are held at Croke Park.
E) In mid August play the All-Ireland Football Final in glorious sunshine in Croke Park. All counties would have had at least 4 c’ship matches spread throughout the country. All counties would have had two shots at meaningful silverware. London and New York have a few home matches each year to spread the gospel of GAA. There are no dead rubbers.