Fenor advance to Munster Final

Fenor’s bid to become the third Waterford club to win the Munster Junior Club Championship in a row remains on track after they overcame the challenge of Clare side Ennistymon at Walsh Park on Saturday afternoon last.

This was a game that the Déise Champions were always in with an excellent chance of winning despite not having a competitive game with almost five weeks since they beat Saint Mary’s in the County Final at the same venue.

Fenor made two changes to the side from the start to the team that beat Saint Mary’s as their hero on that day Sean Cheasty who won a late free to draw that game and then got the winner moments later came in for Tadhg Campbell at corner forward and Ray Hennessey replaced Kieran Dunphy between the posts after his recent move to New Zealand.

Right from the off in this game Fenor were on top in this game.

Ben Gallagher opened the scoring for his side just past the minute mark of the game when he put over a free and repeated the act five minutes later.

Conor Rockett put his side three up on eight minutes, but that lead could have been wiped out moments later as Enda Ralph shot wide.

Mickey Nicholls and Liam Tierney exchanged scores for their respective sides by the twelfth minute to keep Fenor three up.

Ben Gallagher extended Fenor’s lead by one on twenty one minutes and two minutes further on he could have put his side seven up when he found himself with a good goal scoring opportunity but he saw his effort go just wide of Cathal McDonagh’s upright.

However, Fenor wasted little or no further time to ensure that the umpire would have to reach for a green flag as Conor Rockett and Mickey Nicholls combined well to set up Sean Cheasty for the games first goal of the game.

Ben Gallagher put over two more points before Liam Tierney for the visitors hit their second point of the game to leave his side trailing 1-7 to 0-2 as the sides changed ends.

The visitors to Walsh Park in the second half did manage to do better than in the first as they out scored their opponents 0-9 to 1-4 but they had left themselves with too much to do as Fenor ran out winners with eight points to spare.

The Clare side who bowed out of the Clare Championship at the semi final stages of the competition began the second half brightly with a point from Michael McDonagh inside thirty seconds of the restart.

However, the game was as good as over for Ennistymon with twenty-seven minutes to go as Sean Cheasty cracked his second goal of the game following good work by Anthony Kiely in the build up.

Ennistymon enjoyed a period of dominance after this as Michael McDonagh from a ’65, Liam Tierney from a brace of frees and Padraig Brennan all landed scores to leave Sean Cheasty’s goals the difference between the sides on the scoreboard.

Ben Gallagher put over two more frees to put Fenor back in front by eight.

The closing minutes proved to be an even affair as Liam Tierney put over a brace of frees for the visitors, one from a free while Ollie St. John and Ben Gallagher from a magnificently struck sideline cut just as he had done in the county final landed points for the eventual winners.

Fenor now head to Mallow on December 6 where they will be playing Cork side Doungourney and will be hoping that a venue that has proven to be kind to Ballysaggart and Modeligo over the same weekend in the last two years will be just as kind to them.

Fenor: Ray Hennessy; Fergal Whelan, Donal Kelly, Luke Middleton; Peter Kelly, Jim Halley, John Flynn; Anthony Kiely, Niall Hennessy; William Cullinane, Ciaran Kirwan, Ben Gallagher; Sean Cheasty, Conor Rockett, Mickey Nicholls. Subs: Anthony Whelan for Peter Kelly (44), Ollie St. John for William Cullinane (48), Flannan Cleary for Conor Rockett (56), David Sullivan for Anthony Kiely (59).

Scorers: Ben Gallagher 0-8 (4f, 1sl), Sean Cheasty 2-0, Conor Rockett, Mickey Nicholls, Ollie St. John 0-1 each.

Ennistymon: Cathal McDonagh; Cathal Frawley, Michael Devitt, Brendan Hogan; Adam Ralph, David Davenport, Joseph Rynne; Liam Davitt, Michael McDonagh;  Christoir McCaw, Enda Ralph, Padraig Brennan; Liam Tierney, Aidan Slattery, Tony Malone. Subs: Liam O’Driscoll for Cathal Frawley (41), Thomas Griffin for Christoir McCaw (48), Colin O’Driscoll for Liam Devitt (52), Kieran Harvey for Joseph Rynne (58), Derek McInerney for Tony Malone (58).

Scorers: Liam Tierney 0-5 (3f), Michael McDonagh 0-2 (1 ’65), Padraig Brennan 0-1.

Referee: Philip Kelly (Tipperary).