Oranmore/Maree juniors pay price for poor first half

Oranmore/Maree 3-5

A bizarre game. The winners appeared to have this Connacht junior club semi-final wrapped-up on more than a few occasions but failed to deliver a knock-out blow and limped over the line. Only just.

And the losers, who were second best throughout and looked dead and buried at various stages over the hour, can rue missed opportunities that could have snatched an unlikely draw, and perhaps even a win.

Louisburgh eventually scraped through with a one-point win over the Galway champions Oranmore/Maree, who summonsed serious spirit to push the Mayo men all the way in an entertaining, incident-filled match at Pearse Stadium on Sunday.

It’s tempting to pinpoint Oranmore/Maree’s three missed chances to force a draw in the five minutes of time-added-on in the second half. Their best player, Jonathan Kelliher, skewed a free and dropped another effort short; and two-goal hero Seán McInerney, who coolly converted a pair of penalties, also sent a shot wide late on.

Those missed opportunities were not their downfall. This game was lost in the first half when Oranmore/Maree were slow to get going and Louisburgh took full advantage of the breeze at their backs to take a 0-7 to 0-3 lead to the dressing room.

It was also lost in that crucial period just after half-time when Louisburgh extended their advantage to eight points when they rattled off four scores in quick succession.

From there onwards Oranmore/Maree were chasing the game. And in fairness, Gerry Fahy’s men showed bucket loads of character during that chase but in the end their challenge fell just short.

Though there will be some regrets – as well as the three they scored, Oranmore/Maree had a least two more clear-cut goal chances – Louisburgh were deserving of their victory.

The statistics tell their own tale. Louisburgh scored 15 times, twice as many as their opponents, and they also had a better spread of scorers; eight in all, again, twice as many as Oranmore/Maree.

In Kevin Gibbons, the man-of-the-match, they possessed a forward who always posed a threat; and in Padraic Prendergast they had a man who was deadly accurate from placed-balls – two of his three converted frees were things of beauty, sailing through the posts from distance off the ground.

Oranmore/Maree trailed by four at the break, having registered just three points in the opening 30 minutes, through Jason Costello, Eoghan Stenson and Kelliher

The wind was obviously a factor but three points is a poor return, particularly given that they had three efforts dropping short into the keeper’s hands, and recorded two wides.

They converted less than 40% of their first half point scoring chances. And scoring chances certainly weren’t plentiful, as Louisburgh’s dogged defence was well on top, and Oranmore/Maree’s passing into their forwards was regularly cut-out by backs hungry for ball.

Full coverage in this week's Connacht Tribune.