Conamara men dig deep to win promotion battle

Salthill-Knocknacarra 0-6

By Mike Rafferty in An Spidéal

As Michéal Ó Briain hobbled up the steps from the pitch in An Spideal on Saturday afternoon, he had the look of a man whose body was suffering the consequences of another hard battle.

For the previous hour, he was one of the An Cheathrú Rua lads who put the team and parish to the fore and he would get over his sufferings later.

This contest was an opportunity for them to get back to the intermediate ranks, and for the duration of this Junior Gaelic football promotion play-off, they were the better team.

They were grateful for an Eanna Mac Cormac opening half goal as it eventually the difference between the sides. For the duration they looked to be the more committed side, and brought a greater passion to proceedings; and apart from some dreadful shooting in the early exchanges, were better rewarded in the finishing stakes.

It was fitting that the last two scores of the game were kicked over the bar from open play, because of the 14 points scored, 10 were from frees and marks and the other two punched over. It probably is an inditement of the current game and the way it is played, but on this occasion, it won't bother An Cheathrú Rua.

In contrast, Salthill-Knocknacarra never looked like a side who were chasing such a reward. They played the majority of the game on the back foot, hardly ever actually kicked the ball and scored just one point from play in 60 minutes.

Two wides in total indicated they did very little shooting at goal and in the process they can have no complaints about the outcome, as some exciting forwards never got a chance to express themselves, while of course some tigerish defence by An Cheathrú Rua kept their scoring prospects to the minimum.

Mind you, they did get the first score of the game when Daniel Hoare punched an effort over the bar, but thereafter had to rely on three placed balls for further scores in the half. An Cheathrú Rua were not exactly prolific either as some wild and non-essential shooting saw them fire six wides in the opening quarter, before they settled themselves down thereafter.

Pictured: An Cheathrú Rua players had cause to celebrate after clinching promotion last weekend ahead of their Connacht championship clash this weekend.