Ramor Utd. 2-11 St. Josephs 1-7.

Ramor welcomed St Josephs to Ramor Park for this quarter final clash in the U-21 Division 1 Championship.

After a day of torrential rain, Referee Jimmy Galligan deemed the pitch playable. The rain never eased during the game, but the players from both sides made light of this fact and served up an entertaining hour in front of a large attendance.

St. Josephs made the best possible start, racing into a two point lead, with a point from Patrick King in the 2nd minute, and a point from Rory Braiden in the 4th minute. It took Ramor until the 7th minute to register their first score, with a well taken Ado Cole point. In fact the same player was on target again in the 12th minute to level things up after good play between Paul Quealy and Stephen Sheridan. A minute later another fine point from Ado Cole put Ramor into the lead. St. Josephs replied with a good move involving Adrian Martin and Thomas O’Reilly, and the latter found Patrick King in space who turned sharply to fire over a fine point. Ramor spurred on by this score responded in deadly fashion with a Paul Quealy goal, after Cyril O’Reilly split the ball out to the in-rushing Quealy who made no mistake.

Two points in quick succession from Stephen Sheridan and Vincent Mc Cabe put Ramor five points up with half-time fast approaching. The Ramor defence had a good handle on King and Co. at this stage of the game, with Damien Barkey intercepting a ball intended for Patrick King, and laying it off to Paul Quealy, who found Vincent Mc Cabe, and he deftly passed to the impressive wing half back Christopher Sheils who clinically placed the ball in the bottom corner of the net. This gave Ramor a lead of 8 points going in at half-time.

Half time score; Ramor Utd. 2-5, St. Josephs 0-3.

As anyone who watched the Munster final will know, an eight point lead could be a dangerous thing! The second half started off with Thomas O’Reilly and Adrian Martin dominating the exchanges for St. Josephs. They were first on the scoreboard with a P.J. Brady point after just 30 seconds.Paul Quealy, who must have covered every blade of grass on the field scored a point in the 6th minute to restore the half time advantage. From the kick out, Thomas O’Reilly gathered for St. Josephs, found P.J. Brady, who laid it off to Peter Morris who made no mistake finding the bottom corner of the Ramor net.St. Josephs were now within 5 points of Ramor. The Ramor Utd. defence dug deep, as wave after wave of St. Josephs attacks proved fruitless, Ramor holding them scoreless fro 10 minutes.

On a break out attack for Ramor, Mark Hetherton latched on to a Paul Quealy pass to slot over the bar. In the 17th minute Thomas O’Reilly ran through the Ramor defence, having received a pass from Thomas Brady, and drilled the ball over the bar. Ramor had a spell of dominance where the scores came quite easily from Ado Cole and Paul Quealy. Peter Morris replied for St. Josephs to reduce the deficit to six. However, this was to be St. Josephs last score. Stephen Monaghan scored his first of the game with as good a free kick as you will ever see, from the 45 metre line at the sideline.

Seconds later, referee Jimmy Galligan sounded the final whistle to give Ramor a comfortable 7 point win and a place in the semi-finals. This was a typical Championship match with both sides giving their all, yet played in the right spirit. St. Josephs can be proud of their efforts, playing a good brand of fast flowing football. However, their reliance on full forward Patrick King to get scores may have cost them as Ramor’s defence cut out the threat early in the game.

Best for St. Josephs were Aaron Brady, Austin Fitzpatrick and James Morris in defence, Thomas O’Reilly and Adrian Martin worked hard at mid-field while Thomas Brady, P.J Brady, Peter Morris and Patrick King tried hard up front.

For Ramor, the entire defence were solid and in control , especially in the second half. Mid-field did well in spells, while up front Paul Quealy was outstanding along with Ado Cole, and they had good support from Vincent Mc Cabe, Shane O’Reilly, Mark Hetherton and Stephen Sheridan.

Ramor; Matthew Mc Weeney, Damien Barkey, Micheal O’Reilly, Raymond Farrelly, Donal Farrelly, Stefan Connolly, Christopher Sheils(1-0), Stephen Monaghan(0-1, free), James Mc Enroe, Vincent Mc Cabe(0-1), Stephen Sheridan(0-1, free), Shane O’Reilly, Mark Hetherton(0-1), Ado Cole(0-4), Paul Quealy(1-3). Subs used; Colm Murphy, Darren Monaghan.

St. Josephs; Cyril O’Reilly, Shane Bouchier, Darragh Tighe, David Doherty, Aaron Brady, Austin Fitzpatrick, James Morris, Thomas O’Reilly(0-1), Adrian Martin, Rory Braiden(0-1), Thomas Brady(0-1), Kyle Duffy, Peter Morris(1-1), Patrick King (0-2) P.J. Brady(0-1)..