Resilient Oola hit back to earn draw with Newcastlewest in Limerick senior football championship:

By John Redington Limerick Leader Sport

“WE needed to save our season and the lads left everything on the field to get three scores to draw in injury time,” was manager Alan O’Mahony’s reaction as Group 2 basement side Oola came back from the dead to secure a 0-9 each draw with champions Newcastlewest in Rhebogue on Thursday evening.

Edging play if not on the scoreboard early on, coming back to all but cancel out their opponents’ burst of scores coming up to the break, failing to find the target despite dominating possession during the third quarter, Oola looked dead, buried and consigned to the relegation play-off as their effort flagged during the run-in. However, resilient Oola managed one last bout of composed pressure to keep their season alive.

“We probably left it after us in the last ten minutes of normal time when we didn’t press home our advantage,” was the Newcastlwest manager Liam Keane’s take on a game that started at a snail pace before progressively ramping up to a welter of excitement. “Still, we got a point out of it and I suppose that was a fair result.”

With both sides returning to competitive action after a six-week break and having to deal with the demands of their high-flying hurling teams in the meantime, a certain amount of ring rust was probably inevitable.

However, once both sides worked out their early kinks, Oola showed their ambition and the Magpies their experience in a game that ebbed and flowed to throw the championship wide open again after the earlier rounds went mostly to form.

Although Josh Ryan’s opening point for Oola was quickly cancelled out by Darren O’Doherty’s equaliser, the early minutes were dominated by cautious football and long sequences of passing.

The clock was moving up towards the quarter hour mark when Chris Thomas restored the East Limerick side’s lead with a shot from distance. It shook the shackles off as O’Doherty replied, this time from a free.

Tom Ryan then replied with a point off a quick break from the resulting kickout and scores were level again when Emmett Rigter found the target for Newcastlewest.
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However, the Magpies benefited most from the rising tempo as Diarmaid Kelly’s free put them ahead for the first time and, after Bryan Nix’s shot on the gallop off a kickout turnpver was stopped on the line by Cian McGrath, Brian O’Sullivan and Kelly shot Newcastle three points to the good.

But fortunes changed again when Oola sorted out their kickout, and getting the ball forward with pace, they drew a pair of fouls for Ryan to punish and narrow the gap to 0-6 to 0-5 going into the dressing-rooms.

Despite restarting into the breeze, Oola pushed forward on the restart and, even though Eoin Hurley’s free added to Newcastle’s advantage inside two minutes, the East Limerick side dominated play for most of the third quarter. But, between tight Magpie defending, wrong options being taken in the scoring zone and Jack Downey’s fisted goal off Shane O’Grady’s pass across the goal mouth being called back for a square ball, they just couldn’t find their range and were then zapped by O’Doherty’s pointed free off a Newcastle breakaway.

Eddie Stokes finally chalked up the first entry on Oola’s second half scoresheet. Making the most of their escape, the champions moved up the gears to stretch their opponents’ tiring rearguard into conceding fouls.

After one kickable effort went wide, O’Doherty struck the next one over the crossbar to restore his side’s lead to three points. With the clock winding down and the game reduced to 14-a-side with Michael Cremin’s black card and Downey accompanying him to the early shower on his second yellow, the intensity wound down after Michael O’Leary blasted off the upright with two regulation minutes to go.

Oola regrouped to seize the opportunity and, despite their first two forays ending in turnovers, they kept their heads to take points rather than gambling it all on an equalising goal.

Thomas’ barnstorming point got the recovery in motion, O’Grady then collected to pop over from a narrow angle and with the Magpies bundled back into desperate defending, Thomas fed Mikey O’Brien for the equaliser.

SCORERS: NEWCASTLEWEST: Darren O’Doherty 0-4 (3 frees), Diarmaid Kelly 0-2 (1 free). Emmet Rigter, Eoin Hurley (free) 0-1 each; OOLA: Josh Ryan (2 free) 0-3, Chris Thomas 0-2, Tom Ryan, Eddie Stokes, Shane O’Grady, Mikey O’Brien 0-1 each.

NEWCASTLEWEST: Mike Quilligan; Michael O’Keefffe, Darren O’Doherty, Colm Foley; Michael O’Leary, Aaron Neville, Michael Cremin; Lee Woulfe, Brian O’Sullivan; Emmett Rigter, Diarmaid Kelly, Todd Donovan; Bryan Nix, Mike McMahon, Eoin Hurley. SUBS: Thomas Quilligan for Diarmaid Kelly (35 minutes), Eoin Murphy for Lee Woulfe (48 minutes), John Whelan for Todd Donovan (58 minutes).

OOLA: Cian McGrath; Paddy Downey, Eoin Fitzgibbon, Fiachra O’Grady; Thomas O’Mahony, John O’Callaghan, Dubhan O’Grady; Dylan McGrath, Chris Thomas; Éamonn Landers, Josh Ryan. Eddie Stokes; Shane O’Grady, Tom Ryan; Jack Downey, SUBS: Cian O’Donovan for Thomas O’Mahony (half-time, Mikey O’Brien for John O’Callaghan (41 minutes), Kevin Maher for Éamonn Landers (44 minutes), Colin O’Grady for Josh Ryan (52 minutes).

REFEREE: Séamus Hayes (Mungret-Saint Paul’s)