SFC Quarter final: CHAMPS
PLAY "OUT-OF-JAIL" CARD!
Mayobridge
1-10 Rostrevor 2-7
By Colm Fitzpatrick
SFC Quarter final: CHAMPS PLAY “OUT-OF-JAIL” CARD! - Mayobridge 1-10 Rostrevor 2-7
You need luck to win championships.
You have to keep believing that ,even
when everything else is going wrong
around you. Such as it was for Mayobridge
before a packed St Marys Park on Friday
evening. Champions Mayobridge were within
sixty seconds of exitting the 2007 championship.
They could have had no complaints. They
had played wretchedly. Rostrevor had
led from the opening minute of the game,
and were cruising. They really ought
to have been cruising more comfortably,
but had been spurning chance after chance
of putting the match right out of mayobridges
reach, with Martin Cole, Aidan Cole
and others squandering easy chances
to stack up the “insurance scores.
Time for one last desperate mayobridge
attack. It seemed to have come to nothing.
Ronan Sexton was in possession about
eight yards out, but with his back to
goal and completely surrounded by Rostrevor
defenders, it was hard to see anything
in it for Mayobridge. He duly lost possession,
but so congetsted was the space around
him that Reds were equally unable to
get the ball clear. As they heaved and
hauled, Ronan somehow found the ball
at his feet again, stuck out an optimistic
toe, and watched as the ball trickled
slowly through a forest of legs and
over the goal-line, past the despairing
late dive of unsighted goalkeeper Ciaran
Sloan. The kick-out came and so did
the final whistle. Replay! And who would
have believed it?
LET OFF
Not even the most optimistic Mayobridge
fans; The had watched glumly as their
out-of-sorts team had struggled from
the start against determined Rostrevor.
A great Niall Farrel catch under pressure
in Bridges first attack had given notice
that this would be one of Reds steelier
defensive displays. And Reds went straight
up the field for the ubiquitous Eanon
McConville to take a perceptive pass
from Adrian Mackin and open the scoring.
And with two minutes gone, Reds had
added a goal. Lloyd Parr and Colm Clerkin
patiently engineered a gap from the
right corner, and Clerkins fisted cross
found Tur;ough Murphy, Absent-Without–Leave
from his designated task of marking
Benny Couter, unmarked on the edge of
the square to flick to the net!
COULTER CLASS
Turlough soon found his full time job
a demanding one as Coulter opened up
to cause serious trouble in the first
fifteen minutes. In that time, he had
shot a good solo point himself and had
a blasting shot well saved by Ciaran
Sloan. [Ronan Sexton had touched the
rebound to the net, but from inside
the square, said the referee, so, after
14 minutes, points by Adrian Barry and
Michel Walsh, against a converted free
by Colm Clerkin still left Bridge 0-3
to 1-2 behind.
BREAKTHROUGH
But then came the score which changed
the complexion of the game. Jarlath
Austin launched a high kick goalwards.
Lloyd Parr rose to win it from Conor
garvey, immediately transferred it to
Adrian Mackin and Adrian crisply left-footed
the ball high to the far corner of the
net. Now Bridge had some serious catch-up
to do. Colm Murney, was now making it
more difficult for Benny Coulter, and
though John Quinn [from a free] and
Beeny Coulter, cut the lead to three,
another Clerkin free restored Reds four
point advantage.
PATTERN
That continued to be the pattern. Benny
Coulter fisted over in the last minute
of the first half and Colm Clerkin responded
with another Reds free in the first
minute of the second. Two good Michael
Walsh points cut it back to 0-8 to 2-4
after 41 minutes only for Colm Clerkin
to make it 2-5 to 0-8 going in to the
final quarter, and for Dermot Mackin
and Shaun Parr to improvise a delightful
duet which ended with Parr touching
it over the bar for a four point adavantage.
Again Bridge battled back. Ronan Sexton
and John Quinn again made inroads in
to the Rostrevor lead, but Lloyd Parr
from a free made it 2-7 to 0-10 and
no sign of a Mayobridge breakthrough.
Indeed, Rostrevor had the better of
the concluding seven minutes, though
mysteriously by then they had replaced
both on-form marksmen Colm Clerkin and
Lloyd Parr and three gilt-edged chances
to secure the outcome were passed over
before that unlikely equaliser materialised
for Mayobridge in the final seconds!
STUNNED
Rostrevor were stunned. They must have
believed they had done enough to win
this one. Defensively they always seemed
to have the measure of the Bridge attack,
with Niall Farrell, Colm Murney and
Sean Farrell outstanding. Martin Doran
covered leagues from midfield, Eamon
McConville always seemed to pop up where
he was needed, and Lloyd Parr was ever
troublesome in the full forward line.
Mayobridge owed much to Ronan Sexton
and Benny Coulter up front and to Brendan
Rooney, Shane O’Hare and Brendan
Grant at the back. But they really did
look uncharacteristically stodgy for
much of the time. Their fane will take
that as a good sign. Surley they couldn’t
play as poorly again? But Rostrevor
by no means played above themselves
in a game which never approached the
sublime heights reached by Longstone
and Kilcoo the previous evening. They
too can improve for Tuesday, with Conor
Daly surely unlikely to have as subdued
an hour again.
So, it‘s back to the melting pot.
Mayobridge scorers;
Ronan Sexton [1-1]; Benny Coulter [0-3];
Michael Walsh [0-3] 1 free; John Quinn
[0-2] 2 frees; Adrian Barry [0-1]
Rostrevor scorers; Colm Clerkin [0-3]
3 frees; Turlough Murphy [1-0]; Adrian
Mackin [1-0]; Eamon McConville [0-1];
Conor Daly [0-1] 1 free; Shaun Parr
[0-1]; Lloyd Parr [0-1] 1 free.
Mayobridge team; Liam Coulter; Shane
O’Hare, Conor Garvey, Brendan
Rooney; Seamus Grant, Brendan Grant,
Brendan Rodgers; Eoghan Woods, John
Caldwell; Noel Sexton, Ronan Sexton,
Benny Coulter; John Quinn, Michael Walsh,
Adrian Barry.
Subs used:Robbie Coulter for Michael
Walsh; Cathal Magee for Adrian Barry;
Darragh Tighe for John Caldwell,
Rostrevor team; Ciaran Sloan; Jarlath
Farrell, Niall Farrell, Eddie Magee;
Turlough Murphy, Colm Murney, Sean Farrell;
Martin Doran, Jarlath Austin; Eamon
McConville, Conor Daly, Colm Clerkin;
Shaun Parr, Lloyd Parr, Adrian Mackin.
Subs used; Dermot Mackin for Adrian
Mackin; Aidan Cole for Colm Clerkin;
Martin Cole for Lloyd Parr
Man of the Match: Sean
Farrell [Rostrevor]
