Off-colour minor footballers fail to do themselves justice

Roscommon 1-9Galway 0-6

Dara Bradley

It’s difficult to reconcile how a team that accumulated 6-24 in just over two hours of football against Sligo and Leitrim on its march to the Connacht Championship final, could fail to register a single score for 40 painful consecutive minutes in the provincial decider.  

But the Galway minor football team managed just that, producing a barren spell of epic proportions, as they slumped to a miserable defeat to Roscommon, who were deservedly crowned the West’s minor champions at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday.

What made the Tribesmen’s lengthy scoring drought all the more remarkable – and depressing – was for a half hour of it, they were playing with the assistance of a gale, and yet a supposedly talented bunch of players couldn’t buy a score.

As the match progressed, and as Galway’s wide count grew greater and error count even greater still, there were genuine fears among the small pockets of maroon and white swamped by a sea of Rossies’ fans at Hyde Park, that wing back Cathal Mulryan’s point from play one minute into the first half, the game’s opener, would be the away side’s sole return over the entire hour. It really was that bad. It got better but only marginally and by the time Galway regist

ered their second white flag 11 minutes after the restart – a rare, well-worked movement involving captain James Shaughnessy and Ian Burke and finished by Shane Maughan – Roscommon had all but secured the county’s 12th minor title and first since 2006.

At that stage the home team had carved out a 1-5 to 0-2 lead and barring a miracle for Tommie Joyce’s charges or a total collapse from the Rossies who now had wind advantage, there was no doubt as to where the Kilcoyne Cup was going to be heading by lunchtime on Sunday.

In fairness, the conditions were rotten but they were rotten for everyone: the driving wind and rain, muddy sod and ball slipping about like a bar of soap was the same for every player and Galway’s solitary point with a strong first-half breeze was inexplicable and inexcusable.

This match was effectively won and lost in the first 30 minutes. Had corner forward Shane Walsh got to grips with a Conor Rabbitte pass that put him through on goal, immediately after Mulryan’s opener, then maybe a green flag would have settled the visitors and who knows how Roscommon would react to falling four points in arrears in front of their own so early. Instead, the slippery leather got the better of the Kilkerrin/Clonberne teenager, he couldn’t control it and his soccer-style effort was deflected out for a ‘45.

The placed-ball was skewed wide, and Galway went on to record a further three more kickable wides in the next 10 minutes, which sapped their confidence and belief, before Roscommon suddenly realised their opponents aren’t up to much and began to exert control.  

Ill discipline and constant fouling from Galway allowed Roscommon establish a three points to one lead, through frees from the stars of the match, Donie Smith and midfielder Thomas Corcoran, before an absolutely wonderful goal sent the home fans delirious.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.