GlencarManor clinch final spot in impressive manner

A Gortletteragh side that was short a few of its first team regulars proved to be no match for County Champions, Glencar/Manor when the sides faced each other in Saturdays Leitrim senior league game in the Bee Park.
 

The win for Glencar/Manor in this game cleared the way for a showdown between them and Melvin Gaels in next Saturday afternoon’s first ever all north Leitrim County senior league final.

Glencar/Manor claimed control in this encounter with a goal that was scored early in each half with Adrian Croal striking first for the north Leitrim men and Dominic Kelly doing likewise for his side’s second goal.

The home-side got on top early in the exchanges after Adrian Croal shot a third minute point and then followed up by firing home an unstoppable goal a minute later.

Croal shot off the inside of Gortletteragh’s right hand upright, as he executed this score, after soloing from midfield and splitting the south Leitrim’s side’s defence wide open.

Conor Reynolds replied with a point from a free, but Glencar/Manor went further ahead over the next four minutes when Adrian Coral hit over a well-taken point and James Glancy also found the target from play.

Gortletteragh responded with a memorable, Dermot Kennedy long range point in the eighteenth minute, but over the next six minutes Glencar/Manor edged into a six point lead when James Glancy fired over his second point from play and Dominic Kelly also shot a similar score.

Conor Reynolds kept Gortletteragh in the hunt when he converted his second free in the twenty sixth minute. However Glencar/Manor still took a 1-5 to 0-3 lead into the break.

After the restart Glencar/Manor came out in a determined mood and snuffed out Gortletteragh’s challenge in the opening nine minutes of the second half when the north Leitrim men added 1-3 without reply.

In this period Alan Sweeney tapped over two frees after fouls on Anthony McDonald and Adrian Croal.

James O’Brien sent in a well delivered thirty seventh minute foot pass from midfield to James Glancy, who was just twenty metres from the Gortletteragh posts, and duly fired over the visitor’s crossbar.

A well-worked Glencar/Manor goal two minutes later left Gortletteragh trailing by eleven points.

Dominic Kelly finished this move to the Gortletteragh net after he received a pass from Anthony McDonald, at the end of a series of spot on link-ups by a number of the north Leitrim side’s players.

Conor Reynolds hit back with his third free of the game for Gortletteragh in the fortieth minute, but a Thomas McDonald point, which was hit from long range five minutes later, restored Glencar/Manor’s eleven point’s lead.

Gortletteragh’s nÓgel Keighran fired over a 48th minute point, which proved to be his side’s last score of the game.

 

 

 

This full report is available thanks to the Leitrim Observer
– its available in this weeks edition of the Observer and online here

 

 

 

28-Nov-08 by LeitrimObserver.ie