Stalemate between Killererin and Moycullen

Date Published: 17-Aug-2010

Moycullen 1-9

Killererin 0-12

Dara Bradley

at Pearse Stadium

MOYCULLEN and Killererin will lock horns again at Tuam Stadium this Sunday (4.30pm) after their Claregalway Hotel senior football quarter-final tie ended in stalemate at Pearse Stadium last weekend.

Based on Sunday’s first-half display, Killererin will win the replay; and going on the performance of Moycullen in the second-half, Seán O’Dea’s men should advance. It’s simplistic but probably best sums up how this entertaining quarter-final panned out – Killererin were all-over an out-of-sorts Moycullen in the opening period, with midfielder Tom Hughes lording it at centre-field, and could and probably should have been further clear at the turnaround; but buoyed up by a class goal from veteran Paul Clancy immediately after the restart, Moycullen were the dominant outfit in the second 30 minutes and will rue a couple of missed opportunities in injury time to clinch victory.

The feeling in the Moycullen camp may well have been that they left victory behind them – they had two hurried shots at the posts late on, one long-range punt from Paul Clancy that veered well wide and a shot from Brian Faherty that dropped short into goalkeeper Alan Keane’s arms, either of which would have sealed the deal.

But to focus on those chances late in the match would ignore the string of opportunities that went a begging for Killererin at the other end in the opening period in particular when the north Galway kingpins had a stranglehold on possession and just failed to make their dominance count on the scoreboard.

And remember, too, that Alan Keane made the journey up from his goalmouth for a free about 45 metres out from goal in the closing stages, but his placed effort sailed wide even though he converted a free from a trickier position just minutes earlier.

Either side could have won this match but the truth is neither really deserved to – too many household names and big match players wearing both strips that normally you could depend on to deliver, failed to come anywhere close to their own high standards on Sunday.