{"id":93319,"date":"2025-09-29T20:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T20:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93319\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T20:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T20:43:08","slug":"donoughmore-edge-five-goal-thriller-to-beat-st-finbarrs-to-p2-minor-football-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93319\/","title":{"rendered":"Donoughmore edge five-goal thriller to beat St Finbarr’s to P2 Minor Football title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Donoughmore 2-18 (2-1-16)\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n St Finbarr\u2019s 3-12 (3-2-8)\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Five goals, a Barrs surge, a Donoughmore killer punch, and another late Barrs fightback. This Premier 2 Minor Football Championship final at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Rinn had the full box set of drama, and everything the new rules intended Gaelic football to be. But on Monday night, it was Donoughmore who held out, edging their way to back-to-back county titles.<\/p>\n

Just when the Togher side had dragged it back to two with six minutes to go, Donoughmore found one more gear.<\/p>\n

Scott Barrett \u2013 outrageous all evening \u2013 clipped over again, Jack McCarthy turning supplier after a tireless display. Daniel Honohan forced a brilliant save from Liam Hegarty before Charlie O\u2019Connell, alive to everything off the bench, teed up Ciar\u00e1n Lawton for the sweetest of points on the hour.<\/p>\n

One minute of added time was not enough for St Finbarr\u2019s. An O\u2019Donoghue free trimmed it back, but no miracle was coming. The final whistle was greeted with a Donoughmore roar.<\/p>\n

\" Donoughmore celebrate their win. Picture: Jim Coughlan.<\/p>\n

The second half was where it all turned came alive.<\/p>\n

Donoughmore had raced 1-13 to 0-8 clear after 37 minutes, three better than they were at half-time, and looked like they might disappear over the hill.<\/p>\n

The Barrs, though, did not pack it in. Charlie Galvin won a penalty, Trevor Howe drilled it to the bottom corner, and when O\u2019Donoghue tagged on a free they were suddenly within four.<\/p>\n

By the 45th minute it was down to two. U16 Alex O\u2019Herlihy burst his way through and buried beautifully into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n

Donoughmore\u2019s response was emphatic. Daniel Holland, everywhere all night, clipped over another beauty, then provided the pass of the game \u2013 a raking delivery into Honohan, who gathered, shimmied, and slipped the handpass across for O\u2019Connell to palm home.<\/p>\n

It was the team goal of the night, and it stretched the lead back to seven, 49 minutes played.<\/p>\n

Still, the Barrs fought. O\u2019Donoghue lashed over a booming two-point free, James Murray charged forward to lay off for Dan O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s thunderous finish on 54 minutes. The game was alive right up until Lawton\u2019s clincher.<\/p>\n

\" Dan O’Keeffe, St. Finbarrs, and Daniel Golden, Donoughmore, contest the high ball.. Picture: Jim Coughlan.<\/p>\n

It had started at a slower boil. St Finbarr\u2019s nosed in front early, 0-3 to 0-2, before Donoughmore seized the game by the throat.<\/p>\n

The turning point came on 10 minutes. Dan O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s handpass across midfield was pounced on by Holland, who darted ahead and let fly. Hegarty saved brilliantly, but Paddy Murphy was there in a flash to hammer home the rebound.<\/p>\n

The black and white tails were up. Holland landed the next two scores himself, one a peach off the left, the other after a clever interception.<\/p>\n

They pressed, harried on kickouts, forced turnovers, and reeled off five in a row to surge 1-7 to 0-3 clear by the 16th minute.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donoghue briefly steadied the Barrs with an outrageous two-pointer, the end product of a seven-pass move, but Donoughmore hit back with three more white flags to stretch the margin to eight, 1-10 to 0-5.<\/p>\n

The Barrs kept themselves in it with three late first-half scores, Evan Malone and Howe on target, but they left one behind too.<\/p>\n

\" Peter Watson, Chairperson Rebel Og presents the Cup to DJ Foley, Donoughmore. Picture: Jim Coughlan.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Herlihy stole possession brilliantly, Murray carried, Galvin and Edmond Burke combined, only for O\u2019Sullivan in the Donoughmore goal to react superbly and tip the goalbound effort over the bar. Five up at the break.<\/p>\n

From there, it took all their resilience \u2013 and no little brilliance from Barrett, Holland and O\u2019Connell \u2013 to withstand the Barrs\u2019 charge.<\/p>\n

At the back, Tom Murphy was immense. Around him, McCarthy grafted endlessly, and Lawton\u2019s point at the death was the sweetest reward.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for Donoughmore: D Holland 0-7 (1 tp, 0-2 f), S Barrett 0-6, C O\u2019Connell, P Murphy 1-0 each, D Honohan 0-2, J McCarthy, L Honohan, C Lawton 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for St Finbarr\u2019s: C O\u2019Donoghue 0-8 (0-3 f, 1 tp, 1 tpf), T Howe 1-1 (1-0 pen), A O\u2019Herlihy, D O\u2019Keeffe 1-0 each, J Murray, E Burke, E Malone 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n DONOUGHMORE: C O\u2019Sullivan; D Walsh, T Murphy, B O\u2019Connor; L O\u2019Sullivan, DJ Foley, J McCarthy; D Golden, J Murphy; C Lawton, S Barrett, L Honohan; P Murphy, D Holland, D Honohan.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: C O\u2019Connell for P Murphy (19 inj), C Honohan for L Honohan (48).<\/p>\n

\n ST FINBARR\u2019S: L Hegarty; D McGuirk, E Barrett, CJ Barrett; T Howe, L O\u2019Regan, C Garvey; C O\u2019Donoghue, D O\u2019Keeffe; E Malone, C Galvin, E Burke; A O\u2019Herlihy, J Murray, C Barrett.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: J Martin for C Barrett (HT), C Kelleher for Burke (37), A Phillips for Malone, E McKeown for Galvin (both 52).<\/p>\n

\n Referee: K O\u2019Sullivan (Valley Rovers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donoughmore 2-18 (2-1-16)\u00a0 St Finbarr\u2019s 3-12 (3-2-8)\u00a0 Five goals, a Barrs surge, a Donoughmore killer punch, and another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1263,10417,24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-93319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-sport","9":"tag-gaelic-football","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}