Mountbellew are still standing as marathon saga goes another lap

Mountbellew-Moylough 1-11Cortoon Shamrocks 2-8(After extra time)

Frank Farragher at Tuam Stadium

Mountbellew left Tuam on Saturday evening probably feeling they had been the better side over the balance of the 80 minutes, and yet Cortoon departed the old arena with the realisation stuck in their craw that they should have won this senior championship tie.

Given that whirlpool of conflicting emotions, a draw, in an eccentric kind of way, probably represented a fair conclusion to a game that, although lacking any extended spells of quality play, still kept the crowd of about 800 on their toes for the duration of a wholehearted encounter.

Mountbellew-Moylough are certainly leaving their mark on the 2011 campaign. With the nights about to get longer than the days, the men in black and amber are still standing after two championship defeats, an objection that traversed Ireland, and now an extra-time draw during which they twice stared at the gallows.

It had all looked so differently after the first 15 minutes when Mountbellew powered their way into a 1-4 to 0-0 lead, in the process looking a far sharper and more co-ordinated outfit than a Cortoon side struggling desperately to come to terms with the pace of senior championship fare.

In fairness, Cortoon could plead mitigating circumstances. The Mountbellew-Micheál Breathnach boardroom saga meant that the Shamrocks didn’t have a championship game for 110 days and how that lay-off showed during the first quarter of action.

During that period, the men from Moylough hunted in packs for the ball, gobbled up all the breaks around midfield and supported each other strongly in possession, as Cortoon struggled desperately to stay in touch.

The Cortoon cause wasn’t helped either by a rather fortuitous penalty award against them after eight minutes, as Mountbellew corner back, Cathal Duffy, made an audacious run into the opposition square.

Cortoon midfielder Fergal Heverin and wing forward Alan Boyle did make contact with Duffy just inside the square, but the touches were of the minimal variety, and as the Mountbellew player went to his knees, referee James Molloy blew for a penalty award that caught everyone on the hop.

Joe Bergin though didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth, and drilled the resultant spot kick along the tips of the grass blades and into the right hand corner of Darragh Glynn’s net.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.