Remarkable scenes greeted the final whistle as the home side fashioned a remarkable finale to qualify for this year’s decider.

That they toppled their conquerors from yesteryear - the three-in-row seeking Carnacon - was reason enough to be ecstatic but the manner in which they retrieved a situation that seemed to be beyond them was truly awe-inspiring.

“I’ve been involved in football all my life and I have never seen an escape like that,” was how Donoughmore Manager Mossy Barrett summed it up. “We were dead and buried with four minutes to go, down six points and down a player but somehow we dug it out.”

It was worse than that in fact. For 56 minutes of the match, Donoughmore struggled in most sectors and even the luminary figure of Juliet Murphy found the going difficult against a fitter and faster Carnacon outfit who had their own scorer-in-chief Cora Staunton in menacing form all afternoon.

When Staunton slammed home a stunning goal on 55 minutes, the game looked beyond repair as Donoughmore were minus Patrice Kearney (sin-bin), six points down and had only registered 0-4 points compared to Carnacon’s 1-7.

However, in the ensuing play they worked the ball downfield and engineered a free out on the right. Murphy had no option but to lob the ball towards goal, it fell kindly for the hard-working full-forward Louise Murphy and she squeezed home a most crucial goal to ignite the grandstand finish.

Sensing danger - and inexplicably leaving their star-player at full-forward - Carnacon opted to defend in numbers and invite the home challenge. Aisling Barrett trimmed the margin further with a lovely point on 57 minutes but they were then guilty of a shocking open-goal miss when Aisling O’Connor blazed wide.

Showing admirable courage and easily their best football of the match, they attacked in their droves and managed to work the ball to midfielder Rena Buckley. Surrounded by green and red shirts, her only option was to lump it forward and what seemed like a routine save for Caroline Brennan somehow deceived her, ending up in the net and amazingly Donoughmore led for the first time drifting into stoppage time, 2-5 to 1-7.

Regina Curtin thumped over a rousing point in injury-time to open up a two-point margin but not before the home following were made sweat when Staunton bore down on goal. Even her flicks and tricks could not pull this one out of the fire and Donoughmore held on for a sweet victory.

Staunton started the match in blistering form, kicking the first of her seven points after just 30 seconds and followed that up with three more as they sped into a 0-5 points to nil lead after just 12 minutes.

Juliet Murphy eventually got her side off the ground with a free on 19 minutes but in truth, the first-half was all one way traffic. Rena Buckley trimmed it back to just four points prior to the break and with the aid of a strong wind they kept in touch for much of the second-half with points from O’Connor and Juliet Murphy, making way for the late drama which unfolded.

Scorers for Donoughmore; R Buckley 1-1, L Murphy 1-0, J Murphy 0-2 (0-2f), A O’Connor, A Barrett, R Curtin (0-1) each

Carnacon; C Staunton 1-7 (0-3f), F McHale 0-1.

Donoughmore; C O’Connell, E Walsh, L Barrett, R O’Mahony; A Barrett, V Sheehan, A O’Shea; R Buckley, J Murphy; O Healy, R Curtin, P Kearney; Y Twomey, L Murphy, A O’Connor.

Subs; R Barrett for Y Twomey (h/t).

Carnacon; C Brennan; N Hurst, C McGing, N Tierney; M Corbett, A Loftus, S McGing; C Egan, M Carter; F McHale, M McGing, N Beegan; J Hallinan, C Staunton, A Brennan.

Subs; G Moran for J Hallinan (h/t), D Hughes for G Moran (50).

Referee; K Tighe (Dublin).