Galbally found themselves hanging on towards the end of Sunday’s Under 21 final as they lifted their first adult championship title since 1958 beating Loughmacrory 2-12 to 1-13 in a highly competitive and very entertaining decider. The Pearses had to withstand some serious pressure after they were reduced to thirteen players late on following a double yellow card for Seamus Og Mulgrew and a black card for corner back Darragh Corrigan. Loughmacrory pushed the winners all the way during the closing ten minutes and might count themselves unlucky not to have gotten something from the game. Playing with the aid of the breeze Galbally started well with a point from Ronan Nugent followed by a fourth minute goal from Liam Rafferty. Cathair Gallagher got the Loch’s first point before Galbally captain Daniel Kerr made it a four point game again. Gallagher and Aodhan Donaghy landed points for Loughmacrory before three scores in a row left Galbally 1-5 to 0-3 ahead and looking good. A point from Colm Logue kept the Loch well in the hunt before a moment of good fortune really brought them back into the game. A high ball into the defence saw the Galbally defence dawdle and put themselves under pressure as the ball rolled free. Cathaoir Gallagher was quickest to respond and fired to the net from six yards. That left one point between the teams and the sides swapped a brace of scores each to leave the half time score 1-7 to 1-5 in favour of Galbally. Loughmacrory came out after the break fired up with Conall Grimes, Cathal Donaghy, Aodhan Donaghy, Shane Dobbs and Pauric Meenagh taking the game to their opponents. They managed to reduce the gap to a point following two fabulous scores from Colm Logue. However they could not find the equaliser and three scores in a row from Daniel Kerr yielded a goal and two points for Galbally to put them six in front with only six minutes left. Anybody who was expecting Loughmacrory to roll over and surrender was disappointed as the lads in amber and black showed great character in the closing period. They out-scored Galbally five points to one and came close to snatching a draw deep in injury time when a Cathaoir Gallagher effort sailed over the bar. The final whistle witnessed scenes of great celebration for the Pearses players, management and supporters on a memorable day and win for the club.
