Today in the Preliminary Knockout Round of the Leinster GAA Br Bosco Cup, Colaiste Choilm claimed a dramatic late win over St Peter’s, in what can only be described as a pulsating contest.

Colaiste Choilm started the brighter and opened the scoring with thanks to a Harry Plunkett penalty, in the third minute. This stirred the Wexford men into life and they rattled off the next three points on the bounce, two from Alan Mahony and one from Luke Murphy. As the first quarter neared it’s conclusion Plunkett struck once again this time with two points including a well struck free. At the first water break it was 1-02 to 0-03.

Following the restart both Mahony and Plunkett traded scores again. The Offaly men were slightly on top as the game approached the break. This pressure was converted on the score board thanks once again to the accuracy of Plunkett leaving it 1-05 to 0-04 at the interval.

The second half started in much the same fashion with 2 more free’s from Mahony and Plunkett.  The seesaw nature of the game continued when Luke Murphy and Cathal Ryan claimed a point each to send the sides into the final water break on a scoreline of 1-07 to 0-07.

From here on out the game took on a decidedly more dramatic appearance. With Murphy and Jack Twomey bringing St Peter’s to within a single score as the game approached the 50 minute mark. Then a long range free from Plunkett came back off the upright with Robbie Gallagher reacting quickest to fist the ball home and bag Colaiste Choilm’s second goal of the game. With 53 minutes on the clock it stood at 2-08 to 0-09 with the Offaly side looking well on their way.

Then in the 55th minute the pendulum began to reverse a goal mouth scramble resulted in the ball finding its way to the back of the Tullamore net. In the midst of the chaos it appeared that Peter’s Conor Murphy managed to nudge the ball home and turn the game on its head. Alan Mahony and Luke Murphy added two quick fire points to bring the sides level for just the second time. From here Daniel Ormonde stepped up and looked to have fired over the winner as the Wexford men took the lead for the first time. However, as he had for much of the game Colaiste Choilms Harry Plunkett showed unerring accuracy converting a difficult free to force extra time on a scoreline of 2-09 to 1-12.

At the start of extra time Luke Murphy struck once more to nudge Peter’s in front once more. This was followed up by a long range free from Mahoney to leave them two ahead. This however, was counteracted by another free from Plunkett and a fine score from Robbie Gallagher, as the first period came to a conclusion it remained all square 2-11 to 1-14.

The game then looked destined to end in a stalemate. Neither team could break the deadlock and for all the world it seemed as though penalties were on the cards. Then up stepped Sam Bourke. The Colaiste Choilm man fired over a dramatic winner from 30 metres to send the Tullamore side through. It finished 2-12 to 1-14.

Scorers:

Colaiste Choilm: Harry Plunkett 1-9 (goal from penalty, seven frees); Robbie Gallagher 1-1; Cathal Ryan (‘45’) and Sam Bourke 0-1 each.

St Peter’s: Alan Mahony 0-7 (four frees, one ‘45’); Luke Murphy 0-4; Conor Murphy 1-`1; Jack Twomey and Daniel Ormonde 0-1 each.

Colaiste Choilm, Tullamore: Pat Grennan; Ben Heffernan, Diarmuid Finneran, Ryan Conway; Sam Bourke, Cathal Ryan, Daire McDaid; Harry Plunkett, Cillian Martin; Dan Bourke, Dan Ravenhill, Luke Bourke; Niall Furlong, Joel Troy, Robbie Gallagher.

Subs: Jack Daly for Conway; Jack Connolly for Furlong; Gavin Hand for S Bourke; Jack Kelly for Ravenhill; S Bourke for L Bourke.

Extra Time: Niall Furlong and Luke Bourke started in place of Jack Kelly and Gavin Hand.

Subs: Dan Ravenhill for D Bourke; Jack Kelly for C Martin.

St Peter’s, Wexford: Darragh Murphy; Rob Delaney, Killian Twomey, Cathal Harding; Daniel Ormonde, James Doyle, Corben Browne; Conor Lyne, Jack Twomey; Ollie Murphy, Alan Mahoney, Conor Murphy; Luke Murphy, Tiernan Doyle, Will Hayes.

Subs: Aaron Kinsella for Delaney; Eoin O’Meara for Lyne; Rory Devereux for Doyle.