Seán MacCumhaills and Milford settle for a draw in U21 Championship

Seán MacCumhaills and Milford had to settle for a under-21 championship stalemate after a highly entertaining second half at Seán MacCumhaill Park on Friday night.

Seán MacCumhaills 1-13
Milford 2-10

The art of free taking played a pivotal role in the first half. Six of the 15 points in the opening half were from placed balls. Things looked good early on for the home side as they raced into a three-point lead within the opening eight minutes with frees from Kevin McCormack and Joel Bradley-Walsh who also added a point from play.

Bradley-Walsh, just returned from an injury lay-off, was dangerous throughout the first half linking up well with McCormack. It took until the 12th minute for Milford to record their opening score from an Eoin O’Donnell placed ball after Killian McBride was fouled.

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Another McCormack free and point from play along with a point from Alex McGeehan for the home side began to take the game away from the visitors but another free from O’Donnell and a score from McBride for Milford took the game back to 3 points.

McCormack, who was having a superb first half added another from play after Bradley-Walsh scooped up a long ball and offloaded. Milford hit their best patch of form in the first half when they hit three points off in quick succession from Paul Ryan, Eoin O’Donnell (free) and Dylan Dorrian.

With the lead down to one, the home side had to up the ante for the final two minutes and restored a three-point lead at half-time with points from Bradley-Walsh and Cian Mulligan.

Milford hit back with two quickfire goals. Eoin O’Donnell’s long-range effort in wasn’t dealt with by the MacCumhaills backline and Rory O’Donnell was strongest to it and fisting the ball into an empty goal.

Soon after, McBride was on the end of a move ignited by Eoin O’Donnell and Milford were two in front - the first time they led.

When Dylan Doherty was fouled, MacCumhaills were given a chance to get back into it and Bradley-Walsh stepped up to riffle the penalty beyond Eoin McGettigan, the Milford goalkeeper.

In a nervy and somewhat ragged end to the game both teams had their chances to win it. McCormack pointed again for MacCumhaills but Shane Black and Mikey McBride replied for Milford to tie the game up.

MacCumhaills thought they had the win sealed when Sean Martin’s point eked his side in front, but Milford’s resilience came to the fore when Rory O’Donnell broke the line to level it up for the final time.

Scorers for Sean MacCumhaills: Joel Bradley-Walsh 1-4, 1f; Kevin McCormack 0-6, 2f; Cian Mulligan, Sean Martin, Alex McGeehan 0-1 each

Scorers for Milford: Rory O’Donnell 1-2; Killian McBride 1-1; Eoin O’Donnell 0-3, 3f; Paul Ryan, Dylan Dorrian, Shane Black, Mikey McBride 0-1 each.

Seán MacCumhaills: Oisin McMenamin; Sean Breen, Pete Byrne, Alan Sproule; Cian Mulligan, Aaron Gillooley, Josh McMenamin; Jack Duffy, Fionn McNulty; Joel Bradley-Walsh, Conor McGinty, Sean Martin, Oisin McGlinchey, Alex McGeehan, Kevin McCormack.

Milford: Eoin McGettigan; Eamon O’Donnell, Eoin O’Donnell, Anthony Curran, Paul Ryan, Conor Coll, Shaun Coffey, Rory O’Donnell, Gavin Riney, Dylan Dorrian, Shane Black, Mikey McBride, Johnny McCallum, Killian McBride, Dylan McGarry.

Referee: Greg McGrory (Four Masters).