Sarsfields finish in blaze of glory to upset the champs

Gort 0-17

SARSFIELDS are back with a bang. After a 13 years absence, the East Galway outfit return to a senior club championship county final after sensationally dethroning holders Gort in the semi-final in Athenry.

Huge crowds of supporters from New Inn and Bullaun lingered on afterwards to savour the victory; and most waited until Francis Madden’s charges had finished their warm down and gave them a rousing reception as they departed the field and headed for the dressing rooms.

What will the scenes be like if they beat Craughwell in the final at Pearse Stadium Sunday week? That’s another day’s work but they were right – even if the focus of the squad had already turned to the decider, sweet victories like Sunday’s don’t come around often and they should be savoured in their own right.

It wasn’t the most fluid performance, and the game itself left much to be desired at times with far toomany frees – 20 of the 38 scores were placed balls. But what it lacked in quality and intensity it made up for in raw tension and excitement, as Sarsfields finished strongly and pulled off the shock of the year.

Gort were hotly tipped to account for Sarsfields and very early on things were going according to plan. After eight minutes, Gort were 0-4 to no score up, as a jittery Sarsfields skewed four wides and were frozen with nerves. It looked ominous and the fear was those misses would come back to haunt the underdogs.

Even when they weren’t motoring well, there was a sense that Gort would have enough about them to get over the line. Maybe the players felt that, too; Sarsfields’ iffy start perhaps gave them a false sense of security. But Gort failed to drive home their early advantage and were guilty of some awful first-half wides as well.

Then, when Sarsfields put it up to them, and went at them, the South Galway men just couldn’t find a higher gear. Gort battled and tried hard to the finish but ran out of steam. They were flat throughout. And they lacked the spark and energy and intensity that were features last year in their march to the final, where they overcame Portumna. Gort has never won back-to-back titles and on Sunday we learned why: It’s an extremely difficult feat.

Sarsfields, after so many years in the wilderness, were far hungrier and hurled like a team that craved success. The longer Sarsfields hung in there, they grew in confidence and belief surged through the team; Gort just couldn’t shake them off and their forwards never got a rhythm going as they relied too much on the free-taking prowess of ever-reliable Aidan Helebert to keep the score board ticking over.

Good teams can win even when playing poorly and of course Gort had chances to turn things around.  A key moment came with just two minutes of normal time remaining. Aidan Harte was burrowing through the heart of the Sarsfields’ defence and bearing down on goal before Niall Quinn with a brave and vital challenge flicked the ball away from danger.

Had Quinn mistimed the challenge, it would have been a penalty; and had he not made it, Harte would almost certainly have found the net. From the ensuing play, Sarsfields stretched their lead to three points, 0-18 to 0-15, with Kerril Wade feeding finisher Noel Kelly. That was a four-point swing.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.