Fantastic Foreglen brush past Limavady to make Intermediate championship final

Foreglen 0-21, Limavady Wolfhounds 0-08

Not even the second half appearance of AFL star Callum Brown could stop a Cahir O'Connor inspired Foreglen for reaching their first Derry Intermediate Championship final since 2019 on Saturday.

The Greater Western Sydney Giants star was all anyone was talking about in the build-up and around the concourses on Saturday but by the time Thomas Devlin's full-time whistle sounded a couple of hours later, it was the O'Brien's No. 8 who was the name on most lips inside the Dungiven ground.

With Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh among the sizeable crowd, O'Connor was superb, his high fielding, pace and mobility almost over-shadowed by his dead-eye ability from frees, an ability which saw the Foreglen player contribute a quartet of excellent two-point efforts among a personal tally of 0-12.

More usually deployed among the forwards over recent seasons, the drop back has suited O'Connor to a tee and while this was far from a one man show by a hugely impressive Foreglen team, it was hard to take your eyes off a player who was at the heart of everything good Foreglen did.

Indeed Saturday was just the latest example of Foreglen doing what Foreglen do. If ever we needed reminding that the O'Brien's are a championship club, this was it. Forget their indifferent league. Forget about Limavady’s brilliant campaign and historic promotion to senior football, when the season turns to championship, Foreglen have an ability to find something extra and they did. By the bucket load.

That's one side of the story. The other was a Limavady side whose brilliant league form deserted them just when they needed it.

With all pre-match focus centred on Brown, the Wolfhounds started like a team distracted by the fuss and barely laid a glove on the O'Briens in the opening 30 minutes. Declan Toner's team have been superb in the league all season and while they badly missed the influence of injured keeper Oran Hartin, they were guilty of defending 10 yards too deep for most of a match in which too many of their key men had an off day.

By contrast the opening half only served to illustrate that Foreglen championship pedigree. Early points from Shea Watson and Caolan O'Connor (f) set the tone and while Richard King's free got Limavady on the scoreboard on five minutes, by the 22nd minute Foreglen had taken a grip of the game at 0-10 to 0-01.

Another Coalan O'Connor free extended that initial 0-2 to 0-1 advantage before Cahir took over with the first of his four two point frees, a score his quickly followed with a single for 0-5 to 0-1.

Watson showed O'Connor wasn't Foreglen's only adept free-taker by sending one over shortly after but there was no stopping the Foreglen No. 8, who added another ridiculously easy looking two point free and a single from play to take his team into that nine point lead.

Cormac Quigley was doing his best to maintain Limavady's interest with a nice effort over his shoulder and a free but the 'Hounds were making little inroads and at the far end, Foreglen were finding space far too easily.

Another Cahir O'Connor 'clinker' was followed by Liam Downey showing his tam-mate that he wasn't the only one capable of scoring from range with a brilliant two-pointer from play and while the last score of the opening half was a Limavady fourth from Quigley once more, the writing already seemed on the wall for Limavady who trailed 0-13 to 0-4 at the break.

Brown's appearance after the interval did rouse some optimism, especially with King pointed within two minutes but any flames of revival were soon doused, that man O'Connor sending over another two point free as if tapping over from 10 yards.

Limavady did threaten a goal on 41 minutes when Oisin Hassan's high dropping shot almost deceived Tiernan Burke, but the O'Brien's No. 1 did well to re-adjust and touch the ball against the bar and away to safety.

It was a brief moment of concern in an otherwise routine half for Foreglen. Each time Limavady even hinted at a fightback, the O'Brien's found the scores to ensure a worry free passage to the final.

And that will be the big disappointment for Toner and his Limavady squad, that they didn't reproduce the levels they've shown themselves to be capable of this season. One off day should not take away from an otherwise excellent season but that will be a frustration.

As for Foreglen, Glenullin await in Saturday's final at Owenbeg. They will be underdogs once more... but sure when did that ever matter to the O'Brien's!

Foreglen scorers: Cahir O'Connor 0-12 (4tpf), Shea Watson 0-3 (1f), Liam Downey 0-2 (1tp), Caolan O'Connor 0-2 (2f), Eoghan Duffy 0-1.

Limavady scorers: Richard King 0-3, (2f), Cormac Quigley 0-4 (2f), Harry McLaughlin (0-1, 1 '45').

Foreglen: Tiarnan Burke, Connaire Kelly, Sean O’Connor, Conrad Sheerin, Paul Downey, Oisin Duffy, Liam Downey, Cahir O’Connor, Eoghan Duffy, Paul O’Kane, Caolan O’Connor, Caoimhin Hargan, Martin Brown, Sea Watson, Eunan McFeely (Subs) Niall Conway for M Brown, 47mins.

Limavady: Caoimhin McGonigle, Johnny McStravick, Ben Deery, Darragh Deehan, Fintan McIvor, Manus Quigley, Oisin Hassan, Tom Deery, Harry McLaughlin, Harry Butcher, Richard King, James McAleese, Ruairi Hassan, Cormac Quigley, Eunan McLaughlin. (Subs) Callum Brown for F McIvor, HT; Aaron McGregor for J McAleese, HT; Sheagh McLaughlin for B Deery, 45mins; Kieran McGlinchey for R Hassan, 53mins; Reece O'Reilly for E McLaughlin, 57mins.

Referee: Thomas Devlin (Newbridge)