Glenswilly goals end Glenfin title hopes 

Glenswilly goals end Glenfin title hopes 

Glenswilly are celebrating Donegal U21B championship success following their win over Glenfin, at the Bridge, Dunfanaghy. 

Glenswilly  2-6 
Glenfin 0-3

Two goals inside 50 seconds at the start of the second half set Glenswilly on their way as they opened up a 2-5 to 0-0 score.

Kealan Dunleavy scored the first of the goals just inside 11 seconds of the restart of the second period and elusive corner forward Daithi Gildea pounced for the second under 40 second later for the second.

Midfielder Dunleavy, and county U-20, tapped the throw-in at the start of the second half into the path of the charging Jack Gallagher. 

Gallagher quickly returned to Dunleavy who drove past a number of defenders before coolly planting the ball in the right corner  of goalkeeper Niall Campbell’s net.

And Gildea struck for number two when Emmett Boyle intercepted the kick-out from the first goal to set the corner forward up for a tap home goal.

That was 49 seconds into the new half and while the champions only added one more point for the rest of the game, they restricted the men from the  Gaeltacht Lár to just three points.  

Luke McGlynn on 27 minutes Kaine McGlynn on 47 minutes and Luke McGlynn again on 63 minutes scored the Glenfin points. 

Glenswilly dominated the opening half and led by five points to no score at the windswept venue.

The game was originally fixed for O’Donnell Park, but was moved at the eleventh hour after the Letterkenny ground was declared unplayable. 

Gildea posted three of the Glenswilly points with Conor McGinty and Dunleavy posting the other two. 

Glenswilly’s Jack Gallagher was the standout player in the half and dominated the Glenfin kickout and drove at the Glenfin defence time after time. . 

Glenfin surprise winners over Aodh Ruadh, in last weekend’s semi-final were once again without their big midfielder and talisman Shaun Ward, in the middle of the park. 

Glenswilly were big winners over Malin, in their semi-final and went into the final as the favourites. 

The Dunfanaghy pitch was in great shape but the game was marred by a strong cross field  wind that made scoring difficult. 

Glenswilly played into the townend goals and despite dominating from the off they had to wait 11 minutes for the opening score.

Gildea after racing on to  a good ball in from Jack Gallagher split the posts from 30 metres. 

Gallagher was enormous and dictated from centre half-back. 

Gildea added Glenswilly’s second point seven minutes later. This time from a 35 metre  free straight in front of the post after Gallagher was hauled down as he bore down on the Glenfin goals.

The champions finally found the range in the closing ten minutes of the half and Conor McGinty, Gildea and Dunleavy made it a 0-5 to 0-1 at half-time.  

Glenswilly scorers: Daithi Gildea 1-3,2f, Kealan Dunleavy 1-2,1f, Conor McGinty 0-1. 

Glenfin scorers: Luke McGlynn 0-2, Kaine McGlynn 0-1.  

Glenswilly: Caolan Curran, Jake Kelly,Sean Collum, John Lapsey; Sean Gallagher, Jack Gallagher, Oisin McDaid; Kealan Dunleavy, Darragh Enright; Gerard Shiels, Emmett O’Boyle, Jamie McCauley; Daithi Gildea, Conor McGinty, Donal Gallagher. 

Subs; Gary Kelly for S Gallagher (h/t); Mark Bonner for J McCauley (51);Luke Toye for C McGinty (53).  

Glenfin:  Niall Campbell;Niall Doherty, Jack Marley, Darragh Carroll; Eoin McGarrell, Odhran McGlynn, Ross Bradley; Jack Long, Kaine McGlynn; Daniel Marley,Matthew Wooton,  Shaun Marley; Odhran O'Connor, Gavin McCormack, Luke McGlynn.

Subs: Josh Bradley for Matthew Wotton (h/t); Shaun Ward for S Marley (39); Conor McMenamin for D McCormack, (49); Adam Marley for  J Bradley (52). 

Referee: Marc Brown (Four Masters)