Limerick SFC semi final pairings confirmed as Adare and Monaleen advance

What promised to be a night full of footballing classics instead highlighted once again the class of Monaleen and the resurgence of Adare on their return to senior football.

Adare and Ballylanders threw in at 6:30pm in what was a replay of last week’s quarter final where Ballylanders snatched a draw, netting four goals in the process. Heading into last night’s game Adare were slight favourites knowing that if they could shore up their defence, a semi final was well within sight. As things panned out it was the west Limerick side who would get the goals, comfortably winning by 3-14 to 1-08.

Well done to our Senior Footballers who had an emphatic victory over Ballylanders last night in Kilbreedy on a scoreline of 3-14 to 1-8.

— Adare GAA (@AdareGAA) September 8, 2017

The game began at a slow pace with Adare with plenty of possession to begin with. By the 15th minute Adare had ran into a 0-4 to 0-1 point lead with Ballylanders’ Shane Fox receiving a black card. Adare were finding scores much easier to come by but could not find the killer goal in the first half as the sides headed into the break with Adare holding a commanding 0-8 to 0-4 lead.

However, the game was effectively ended in a five minute spell in the second half as Adare tacked on 2-2 to give them 12-point lead with just under twenty minutes of the game remaining. The Adare goals comi courtesy of Mark Connoly and Davy Lyons.

With the game over as a contest, Adare secured their third goal of the game with Robbie Bourke netting. To their credit Ballylanders got a goal of their own in the final minutes but it would prove to be too little to late for the 2014 champions as Adare move on to face Drom Broadford in the semi final.

Next up under the Kilbreedy lights were Monaleen and Oola. Monaleen had reversed into the knockout stages while Oola came in with momentum. However, that momentum was abruptly halted by the 2016 Champions as Monaleen made no mistake picking up their first win in their last three outings to advance to face Newcastle West in a mouth-watering semi-final clash.

From the get go, the city side dominated the game as they sought to get back to their early season form that made them look unstoppable. Two points a piece from Evan Quinlan and Ger Collins had Monaleen 0-4 to 0-0 ahead at the quarter hour mark.

On 18 minutes, the city side got their first goal of the game through Barry Fitzpatrixk. Three minutes later Oola finally opened their account through John Clifford but the writing was on the wall for the East club.

Monaleen did not relent and Evan Quinaln had their second goal on the stroke of half-time as they held a nine-point 2-5 to 0-2 advantage.

The second half saw the teams exchange points but the intensity of the match quickly wavered as Monaleen cruised to a 2-14 to 0-5 victory to set up that clash with NCW.

September 24 will see a double header of those two semi-finals in Kilmallock. First up will be the tie between. Drom and Adare at 2pm while Monaleen and Newcastle throws in at 3.45pm. It promises to be a wonderful finish to the season with four top-class teams.