Barna men tops in marathon struggle

FOR a third consecutive senior football championship game, Barna took their opponents to extra-time and, as they did against Leitir Móir in the previous round, showed some mettle and guile to put An Cheathrú Rua to the sword at Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening.

Certainly, Pat Fallon’s charges would seem to have learned from the lessons from their opening round extra-time defeat to Killererin and, in doing so, they were by far a stronger and more confident outfit than their opponents when the game entered the melting pot in extra-time.

Granted, the quality of football on show was terrible – the amount of possession given away cheaply by both teams was sinful – and much of this was down to the defensive nature of the sides.

At one stage, there were 27 players in one half of the field – the exception being Barna goalkeeper James Keane, a fellow defender and an An Cheathrú Rua attacker. It’s one thing for county teams to be using this ‘blanket’ defence but for club teams now to be embracing it is a crime against the game.

Both of these teams have proved down through the years that they are capable of playing the game at breathtaking pace but, on this occasion, they were more determined to stop the opposition from playing than having a cut themselves. It seems the end now justifies the means.

At any rate, with this ploy, An Cheathrú Rua lived by the sword and they duly died by it. They did lead by three points as the final whistle approached – a serious feat given they had created far less scoring chances than Barna but, unlike the victors, were better able to convert them – but they then got caught for the sucker-punch of a Declan Walsh goal.

Substitute DD Flaherty and Ray Conneely both did their bit to prise the late opening and when the opportunity fell to the Galway minor he showed a maturity beyond his years to coolly slot his effort beyond An Cheathrú Rua custodian Ciaran MacDonnacha to tie up the game at 1-9 to 0-12.

An Cheathrú Rua had played a far more controlled game up to this point but, really, they were hedging their bets. Over the 80 minutes, they created just 22 scoring chances where Barna amassed 37. So, while they may have been economical with possession, that counts for little if the opportunities and, more importantly, the scores are not created.

Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune.