Determined Delvin hold out for narrow victory

In wickedly atrocious weather, with a gusting breeze and constant and at times heavy drizzle, a determined Delvin side withstood the not informidable challenge of Ringtown to claim the Minor Championship Division 3 title for 2009. Given the nature of the day, one must say that two wholehearted and committed sides, produced an honest hour's effort, which had both sets of supporters enthrralled in Clonkill on Saturday afternoon. Despite the heroics of Emmet Corrigan who bagged 1-7, Ringtown just could not match the greater penetration of Delvin, whose brace of late first half goals, set them up nicely for the second period.Despite playing into the teeth of the gale in opening moiety, Delvin opened the scoring when Robert Vaughan raced through to point inside two minutes. Almost immediately, Emmet Corrigan had the sides level with a fine point before the Ringtown culbaire, Michael Murphy pulled off the first of many fine stops to deny young Vaughan. On four minutes, Murph had to be alert once more, this time pushing a Darren Flynn rasper up and over the bar. By the ninth minute parity was restored with Corrigan's radar spot on from a '65.Robert Vaughan turned provider for Darren Flynn to get his second before Emmet Corrigan bounced for the Ringtown goal. It came on 12 minutes after Delvin shot stooper, Brendan Mulligan did well to deny John Macken only for Corrigan to drill home the loose ball. Tadgh Kelly pointed a free to narrow the gap but three points inside four minutes from Corrigan (2) and Aidan Daniels put Ringtown in the driving seat.Ten minutes from the break, Emmet extended the lead with a free. An Adam O'Keeffe effort almost took the paint of the outside of the post before Ringtown moved six ahead courtesy of the aforementioned Corrigan. But how the game was to turn in the dying embers of the half. A swift attack exposed the Ringtown defence and Michael Moore raced in to beat Michael Murphy all ends up. And the unfortunate Murph was picking the ball out of the net moments later after misfielding a Tadgh Kelly free. Once again the ball fell invitingly for Michael Moore and he showed his eye for goal when flashing home the gift. The whistle and in the blink of an eye the six point advantage Ringtown had enjoyed was wiped out. The break arrived with Delvin at parity on a scoreline of 2-4 to 1-7. Game on.Within sixty seconds, Ringtown were back in front when Aidan Daniels chipped in with his second point of the day. Robert Vaughan tied up the game with a fine point before Michael Moore gave Delvin a lead they would not relinquish. Robert Vaughan extended the advantage and after a passage of scoreless play, Emmet Corrigan brought the curtain down on Ringtown's tally with a pointed free.Advancing forward, Ross Fay put two between the sides midway through the half and again Brendan Mulligan was alert to the danger when Stephen Sullivan broke through. Try as they might Ringtown just could not find the target and Tadgh Kelly, who had an outstanding game, pushed out the boat with two pointed frees.It was left to substitute to really spark the Delvin celebrations when, with four minutes left on the clock, he raced on to a speculative ball in to push it beyond Michael Murphy for his side's third goal. It proved a bridge too far for Ringtown and when Jimmy Cribben sounded his whistle, it was the young men from the 'Valley who were left singing in the rain.Scorers: Delvin - M. Moore 2-1, J. Ivory 1-0, T. Kelly and R. Vaughan 0-3 each D. Flynn 0-2 and R. Fay 0-1.Ringtown - E. Corrigan 1-7, A. Daniels 0-2.Delvin: Brendan Mulligan; Ross Fay, Michael Moran; Julian Sheerin, John O'Reilly, John Mangan; Tadgh Kelly, Stephen Reilly; Darren Flynn, Michael Moore, Robert Vaughan; Padraig White, Alan Clune. Subs. Ian McCormack for P. White, John Ivory for A. Clune, Kane Lawrence for J. O'Reilly.Ringtown: Michael Murphy; Paul Smith, Michael Connors; Aidan Daniels, Patrick Butler, Shane Moran; James Boylan, Stephen Sullivan; Conor Barrett, Emmett Corrigan, Matthew Hurley; John Macken, Adam O'Keeffe. Subs. David Stell for J. Macken, John Macken for D. Stell, Shane Murtagh for A. O'Keeffe.Referee: Mr. Jimmy Cribben, Clonkill.