St JamesÕ sweep to title glory
Date Published: 09-May-2012
St James’ 1-19Corofin 2-7
IT’S not often a Corofin team at any grade are given a lesson in how to play football but that’s what happened on Sunday at Pearse Stadium as St James’ gave a masterclass display to secure the 2012 Supervalu U21 county football final.
The ‘Jimmies’ won it in some style and given the indepth quality in their ranks, the city club have clearly the potential to become a serious force at senior level in the years ahead.
From the second minute of the decider when official man-of-the-match Ronan O’Connell opened their account, right up to the second minute of time added-on when substitute Liam Finnerty fired over St James’ 19th point of the day, the city side oozed class, playing with a panache that left their North Galway rivals in the ‘halfpenny place'.
St James’ really were a cut above Corofin, who battled gamely but never really looked like securing their third title in-a-row at this grade and can have no complaints about the outcome.
In his acceptance speech, St James’ captain Johnny Duane paid tribute to the management team who worked tirelessly since last November with this squad but that’s only half the story because mentors Seamus Burke and Terry O’Regan have schooled this particular group of players for at least a decade, moulding them into the county’s finest.
The Renmore/Mervue outfit’s natural instinct is to attack – attack with speed – and Corofin just couldn’t handle the relentless wave after wave of pressure.
The fast-flowing nature of St James’ play, coupled with an intelligent and crisp passing game, time and again in the first half in particular had the Corofin defence at sixes and sevens.
The damage was done in that opening 30 minutes as St James led by 13 points to 2-2 at the interval. O’Connell was to the fore, landing four first-half points – his third and fourth from distance were beauties – while marksman Eoghan O’Regan punished every mistake and foul landing five frees before the break.
Michael Elwood and the hard-working Sean Glynn drove St James’ forward while Aaron Connolly was prominent with the spade work at midfield. Even when Corofin twice hit the front with two first-half goals, St James’ were unfazed, regrouped and pushed on as if they were the team with the green flag momentum.
When Daithi Burke hit the net on five minutes thanks to a quick free by Adrian Molloy, St James’ landed the next three points courtesy of Glynn, O’Connell and Connolly to go 0-5 to 1-1 in front.
And when Corofin full-forward Ian Burke, midway through the half, escaped the attentions of Michael Fahy and drilled the ball past David Heffernan to regain the advantage 2-1 to 0-5, St James’ just took over, outscoring their opponents by six points to one in a period of dominance that proved decisive.
The one glimmer of hope for Corofin was the air of vulnerability about the St James’ defence when they ran at them or broke on the counter-attack with speed but, unfortunately, for Ollie Burke’s charges the chances were few and far between after the break as the city side maintained their superiority.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.