Cross’ inch closer to Connacht crown
Crossmolina Deel Rovers’ Aaron Coggins slips past Foxford native Fionán Cruise who lined out for Galway intermediate champions St Michael's.
Crossmolina lost a player down the home stretch of their county final replay with Moy Davitts and it was the making of them. St Michael’s played the entire second-half of Saturday’s Connacht semi-final without their chief scoring threat and the only white flag they could raise was the proverbial one. Held totally scoreless after half-time, the Galway intermediate champions paid dearly for the 29th minute dismissal of Gary Higgins at the end of the opening half, particularly considering they had just outscored Crossmolina by 1-6 to 0-1 over the previous 15 minutes to lead by one point.
So good were Deel Rovers after the interval that it would be unfair to suggest having an extra man for more than 30 minutes was the sole cause of their victory – it’s very possible they would have won anyway – but there’s no doubt that Brian Benson’s side ruthlessly exploited their advantage, scoring 10 unanswered points.
Rather unusually, Higgins’ sending-off occurred in the immediate aftermath of a point by his St Michael’s teammate Brian Harlowe. Before Crossmolina goalkeeper JP Mulhern could take the kick-out, referee Ian Monaghan trotted to the opposite end of the pitch to consult with his umpires about an incident he had obviously spotted previously. The upshot was that he called over the St Michael’s right corner-forward and flashed him a straight red card.
Harlow missed a subsequent chance to extend the away team’s lead to two points, kicking a free wide from the 20-metre line, but the first-half still ended with St Michael’s 1-7 to 2-03 ahead – with each of their eight scores struck by a different player. Their second-half collapse could hardly have been foreseen then. Or could it?
This was the Galway side’s fourth game in as many weekends, having needed a replay to overcome Caltra in the county final, so fatigue is almost certain to have been a factor when 14 players were having to chase 15. And the fact that they had had to play catch up from such an early stage probably caught up on them as well.
After only four minutes, Crossmolina were already as many points to the good with Niall Coggins scoring his third goal in three games and Jordan Flynn running onto Patrick Leddy’s pass to curl over a point. Coggins not only finished the goal but helped create it too, pouncing on the mistake of a St Michael’s defender around the ’45 and playing a one-two with Diarmaid Walsh before stabbing the ball past goalkeeper Stephen Daly.
Gary Higgins opened the visitors account in the seventh minute when driving over a ’45 but a bad start turned into a nightmare for St Michael’s when a point by Leddy was supplemented by Crossmolina’s second goal, to see Benson’s side 2-2 to 0-1 ahead after only 11 minutes. Conor Loftus rose this green flag, powering forward from centre-back to finish a chance fashioned when Aaron Coggins’ long ball allowed Diarmaid Walsh to offload to Niall Coggins who teed-up Loftus.
Little could anyone imagine that the Mayo intermediate champions, so sprightly thus far, would score just once more for the remainder of the first-half.
It took full-back Brian Madden to hit over the first St Michael’s point from play but that one burst forward seemed to instantly inspire those around him. Yes, there was some good fortune about Ronan Mac Giolla Rí diverting an under-hit ’45 by Stephen Daly to the Crossmolina net in the 15th minute but subsequent points by Gavin Summerville, Foxford native Fionán Cruise, Eoin Kerin and Eamonn Brannigan were of excellent quality and saw St Michael’s into a 1-6 to 2-2 lead.
After a pair of earlier misses, James Maheady ended a 16-minute scoreless spell by Crossmolina to level the game but Brian Harlowe swiftly restored St Michael’s lead just prior to that somewhat surprise dismissal of Gary Higgins.
But that was as good as it got for the Blue and White whereas the best was definitely yet to come from the Deel Rovers for whom the excellent Diarmuid Coggins scored three points from play all in-a-row during the third quarter, albeit to many in the ground the middle of those had more than a hint of being wide. Combined with a brace of points by Fionán Duffy, including one from a self-won free, and Patrick Leddy’s second of the game, Crossmolina led 2-9 to 1-7 after 45 minutes, while their opponents were struggling to even break inside Crossmolina’s ’45, let alone get a shot off.
St Michael’s introduced their second Mayo player to the proceedings, with Ballintubber’s Darragh McGovern replacing Cruise, but that nor anything else they tried would halt the momentum of Crossmolina. Conor Loftus, in the midst of another excellent shift, added a point to his first-half goal after which Duffy, a free, James Maheady, after Leddy overturned a St Michael’s kickout, and Diarmaid Walsh fired over the game’s remaining points.
Scorers – Crossmolina: Conor Loftus 1-1, Niall Coggins 1-0, Fionán Duffy (2f) and Diarmuid Coggins 0-3 each, Patrick Leddy and James Maheady 0-2 each, Jordan Flynn and Diarmaid Walsh 0-1 each.
St Michael’s: Ronan Mac Giolla Rí 1-0, Gary Higgins (’45), Brian Madden, Gavin Summerville, Fionán Cruise, Eoin Kerin, Eamonn Brannigan and Brian Harlowe 0-1 each.
Crossmolina: JP Mulhern; Diarmuid Fox, Kevin Mulhern, Matt Gordetskyy; Aaron Coggins, Conor Loftus, Lorcan Loftus; Cillian Fergus, Jordan Flynn; Diarmuid Coggins, Fionán Duffy, Niall Coggins; Diarmaid Walsh, Patrick Leddy, James Maheady. Subs: Cathal Carolan (for Fergus 45), Edward Gough (for Duffy 53), Mikie Loftus (for L Loftus 55), Adam Mills (for Gordetskyy 56), Fearghal Duffy (for A Coggins 59).
St Michael’s: Stephen Daly; Stephen Kerr, Brian Madden, Cathal Meagher; Jack Browne, Shane Maloney, Eoin Kerin; Fionán Cruise, David Hurley; Ronan Mac Giolla Rí, Damian Connaughton, Gavin Summerville; Gary Higgins, Eamonn Brannigan, Brian Harlowe. Subs: Darragh O’Malley (for Mac Giolla Rí 39), Darragh McGovern (for Cruise 42), David Cunnane (for Browne 48), James Summerville (for Hurley 53), Frank Daly (for Harlowe 56).
REF: Ian Monaghan (Roscommon)
