Resurgent
Rostrevor romp to first League Title
Colm Fitzpatrick
REDS ARISE!
RESURGENT ROSTREVOR ROMP TO FIST LEAGUE
TITLE
Rostrevor 2-7 Mayobridge 1-6
Fifteen minutes into last Sunday’s First
Division Final, and Rostrevor fans in
the Esler Park crowd must have felt they
had seen it all before. There could have
been no doubting the hunger for this
first ever league title which had been
consuming the South Down village in
recent weeks. But as so often in the
past, it seemed that that hunger was
paralysing, rather than driving the
hyper-anxious players, and, yet again on
the big occasion, it seemed they were
not equipped to deliver.
ALL THE
ANSWERS
Mighty Mayobridge, it seemed, had all
the answers when the chips were down.
The ball had hardly left the Rostrevor
half in that opening quarter, as the
County Champions, their focus strongly
restored since their Ulster Championship
disappointment, contemptuously brushed
aside the feeble challenge of their
rivals.The only grain of consolation for
the despondent Rostrevor supporters lay
in the fact that Bridge were failing
alarmingly to translate that superiority
onto the scoreboard. Indeed after 13
minutes or so, the sides were still
level, the most glaring of Bridge’s
misses coming when Declan Rooney arrived
just fractionally too late to connect
with a low cross in the goalmouth in the
11th minute.
LINDEN
LEADS FROM THE FRONT
And then Mickey Linden took a hand to
settle his team-mates, and set them
firmly on the path to the retention of
their league title. Mickey fisted over
the bar himself, following a pass from
the lively Adrian Barry, and soon set up
another for Ronan Sexton. In between
times, Reds jitters were exemplified by
a wild pass from Martin Cole which
gifted another point to Adrian Barry.
BOOKIES
RIGHT AGAIN?
Three-nil for the champions and the game
well into its second quarter. It looked
as if the bookies, who had been offering
insultingly high odds against a
Rostrevor success, had got it right
again.
But something was stirring in the
Rostrevor undergrowth. Not so much an
awareness of what was at stake. That is
what, probably had been afflicting them
until now. More a memory of the fun it
had been to play their football in the
happier times of early summer, when they
were carrying all before them. One of
the few bright aspects of the game until
then had been Reds loyalty to the shape
of their game. Despite all their
frustrations, they had doggedly stuck to
their short-passing, high-energy style
of play. It had rarely got them over the
half way line. Mayobridge were imposing
abrasively physical Ulster Championship
standards of tackling and covering in
the middle third of the pitch, and
Rostrevor’s efforts to move the ball
patiently through this hostile maelstrom
came inevitably to grief. But still they
stuck at it, stubbornly believing that,
if once they could work the ball through
to their inventive forwards, something
good would happen. And so it did.
RED
BLAZE
Conor Daly’s free ,punishing a foul on
the hard-working Sean Parr , was the
first sign that things could change, but
the game really burst into life in the
21st minute. Bridge, perhaps
over-casual as they tried to pass the
ball out of their full-back line, were
caught napping, and Lloyd Parr exploded
through a series of half-hearted tackles
to blast the ball to the Mayobridge net!
Rostrevor were transformed. Two minutes
later, they swept back upfield on the
back of some inspiring defensive play
from Paul Magee. Adrian Mackin had
roamed over to the left hand touchline
to collect possession; he found Eddie
Magee steaming up in support, and, when
Eddie looked up, there was his wing
back partner, Turlough Murphy at his
shoulder. Turlough took the pass at full
pace and drove his shot high past Sean
Featherstone! A couple of minutes later,
Adrian Mackin swung over a typically
delightful point from the right corner,
and Mayobridge, so recently a
comfortable 0-3 to 0-0 in front now
found themselves 2-2 to 0-3 in arrears.
More than the scoreboard had changed,
however. They also found themselves up
against a completely transformed
Rostrevor team, playing with all the
verve and confidence which had made them
such a joy to watch in the first half of
this season.
DIGGING
DEEP
Bridge dug deep, as you would expect
from champions of their calibre. And
they slung themselves a lifeline when
Shane O’Hare and Mickey Linden plundered
a couple of points in the seconds before
half time. But it was now so much more
difficult for them to make any progress
against the pacey and tenacious
Rostrevor defenders. And, at the other
end, Rostrevors now-burgeoning
confidence was stretching the Bridge
defence time and again. Lloyd Parr
knocked over a free awarded to the
industrious Martin Doran, Conor Daly
flighted over another from outside the
50 yard line and Reds were six points
clear by the 40th minute,
when Martin Doran applied a calm finish
to a burst from midfield by the
increasingly influential Fintan McBreen.
It wasn’t until the 48th
minute of the game that Mickey Linden
hit Mayobridge’s first [and only!] point
of the half, and the sight of the Bridge
maestro taking himself off a minute
later can only have raised Rostrevor
hopes further!
REDS
HOPES SOAR
Those hopes soared once more when Sean
Parr and Jarlath Austin conjured a
beautifully executed point for Eamonn
McConville in the 52nd
minute. That made it 2-6 to 0-6 and left
Mayobridge desperately fishing for late
goals to resurrect their hopes. But
there was still a twist or two left in
the tail of this absorbing game.Benny
Coulter burst clear through the middle
in the 56th minute. But just
as he was about to pull the trigger, he
was unbalanced by a last-ditch tackle.
The referee awarded a 20 metre free,
which Ronan Sexton then rocketed off the
underside of the Rostrevor crossbar.
That was the moment that Rostrevor fans
sensed that the Force really was going
to stay with them. There were still a
couple of drum-rolls; Martin Coles great
kick from the left touchline was
acclaimed joyfully by the big Rostrevor
crowd on the terraces long before it
actually crossed the black spot on the
crossbar. And, in added time, Bridge did
get the goal they had been looking for,
Adrian Barry finally finding the net at
the end of a bizarre spell of PinBall in
the Rostrevor goalmouth. But, since they
were by now down to 14 men following the
dismissal of Liam Coulter shortly
beforehand, they were never likely to
threaten further inroads into Reds still
safe advantage.
UNBRIDLED
The unbridled joy which greeted the
final whistle said all that needed to be
said about just how much this title
meant to the Rostrevor club. If you want
a First Division title as badly as Reds
did, of course, it doesn’t really matter
how you win it. But it is appropriate
that the style in which Rostrevor won
this league crown was very much in
keeping with the attractive football
which distinguished their play all
season. And they had to be persistent in
order to impose that play, for
Mayobridge clearly had identified this
as a Need-to-win game in terms of their
morale so recently damaged in the Ulster
semi-final by St Galls. They came out of
their blocks like a whirlwind, and, with
a little less carelessness in their
finishing, might have had Rostrevors
presumptions deeply buried in the Newry
mud by the end of the opening quarter.
Instead, they were only three points
ahead when Reds began to stir from their
early daze, and despite some heroic
efforts from Benny Coulter, Mickey
Walsh, Mickey Linden and Brendan Grant,
in particular, it became clear that
their determination to win this game
could not match the burning desire which
flared up in Rostrevor breasts as the
realisation dawned that this historic
breakthrough was on the cards.
WHAT IT
MEANT
Just what this victory meant to
Rostrevor was made clear by the
unrestrained celebrations at the end of
the game, celebrations which seemed to
be conducted in a world of their own as
the County Chairman’s repeated pleas to
be allowed to present the trophy went
ignored!When they settle down this week
to assign thanks for this success, they
must go first of all to their management
team. It was only a couple of weeks
before the season started that Reds
managed to cobble together a makeshift
all-internal new management team
consisting of players and former
players. Makeshift in origin, perhaps,
but Formula One in performance! Sunday’s
victory crowns the most consistent
season ever for the club. It has to be
down in large measure to the success of
the management in establishing a model
of play which has continued to deliver
results all season despite the
inevitable losses of key players along
the way. Take last Sunday for example.
Missing were three of Rostrevors most
influential players from the first half
of the season, Sean Farrell, Dermot
Mackin and Joe Fegan. Yet the trio who
came in to replace them were among
Rostrevors finest performers on the day!
Martin Doran was effervescent at full
forward. Eamonn McConville showed great
maturity at wing forward, his strongest
testimony the negligible impact of Ronan
Sexton on the game. Turlough Murphy had
a magical hour at wing back, arguably
Man of the Match, and scorer of a quite
wonderful goal.
SUCCESSES
Though there were so many successes on
this Rostrevor team: Ciaran Sloan was
decisive in command of his goal area,
especially in the opening quarter when
Mayobridge swarmed around him in search
of an early killing blow. The Rostrevor
full back line was always too fast, too
alert and too focussed for the
Mayobridge attack. Rostrevors half back
line was probably the sector which did
most to win the game. Turlough Murphy’s
contribution has already bee mentioned.
On a par with it was that of Eddie
Magee, while martin Cole settled after a
nervous start to play an inspiring role
from centre-back. At Midfield, Jarlath
Austins power and experience saw him get
the better of his important battle with
Eoghan Woods, though just as vital was
the input of Fintan McBreen. Fintan was
up against the most complete footballer
on the field in Benny Coulter, and it
was a Coulter well charged up for this
performance, but the discipline and
concentration of the Reds midfielder saw
him increasingly central to everything
good happening for his team.half forward
was also a key area. Conor Daly led his
line with dash, but the lower profile
contributions of teenage wing forwards
Sean Parr and Eamon McConville were just
as critical, as they helped Rostrevor
develop a firm control on the play for
most of the second half. Lloyd Parr put
the quality service coming through to
him to excellent use. His goal was
brilliantly taken, following great work
from Martin Doran. In the other corner,
Adrian Mackin hit his usual gorgeous
point at a a vital time in the first
half.
DESERVED
This title win was not only deserved on
the day, it was deserved over the
season. Rostrevor led the First Division
from start to finish, playing some very
attractive football along the way. They
met Mayobridge three times this year.
Twice they beat them convincingly, and
once they were held to a draw by a
Mayobridge rally inspired by the late
introduction of Mickey Linden. How happy
they must have been to see Mickey leave
the pitch this time with ten minutes to
go rather than come on to it! It is not
that Mickey isn’t worth his place on the
starting fifteen still. He was certainly
Bridges most dangerous forward for the
time that he was on. But the worrying
thing for Mayobridge may be that they
have so little threat from elsewhere in
the forward line. Mickey Walsh had to
drop far too deep to be a worry to
Rostrevor, and the only forward to score
apart from Mickey was Adrian Barry,
whose goal in added time came too late
to be relevant. The comforting thing for
the champions may be that they do not
have long to wait for a new shape to
come along. Teenagers Conor Garvey and
Seamus Grant both started on Sunday, and
another, Cathal Magee came on for the
final quarter. Mickey Lindens force is
far from spent either. Bridge will be
back.
.
Rostrevor team; Ciaran Sloan; Kevin
McGrath, Paul Magee, Jarlath Farrell;
Eddie Magee, Martin Cole[0-1], Turlough
Murphy [1-0]; Jarlath Austin, Fintan
McBreen; Sean Parr, Conor Daly [0-2],
Eamonn McConville [0-1]; Lloyd Parr
[1-1], Martin Doran [0-1], Adrian Mackin
[0-1]
Mayobridge team; Sean Featherstone;
Conor Garvey, Brendan Grant, Gavin
Barry; Ronan Sexton [0-1], Francie
Poland, Shane O’Hare [0-1]; Benny
Coulter, Eoghan Woods; Seamus Grant,
Michael Walsh, Adrian Barry [1-1]; Barry
Garvey, Mickey Linden [0-3], Declan
Rooney.
Subs used; John Quinn; Liam Coulter;
Cathal Magee
Referee; Gavin Corrigan
Man of the Match: Benny Coulter [Mayobridge]
