First cup is the sweetest as Ardagh cross the threshold
Ardagh captain James Carr lifts the Pete McDonnell Cup following his side's historic victory at MacHale Park last Sunday. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Ardagh had never before reached the final let alone win it so the celebratory scenes after Sunday’s thumping win were understandably joyous. The against-the-odds style of their victory over Eastern Gaels simply added to the exhilaration; Ardagh had played with the breeze yet trailed by one point at half-time having left a raft of scoring chances behind them, several of them of the goal variety.
You can only imagine the bitter disappointment of Eastern Gaels then, to fall short at the final hurdle for the second time in 12 months, themselves wanting and waiting to win a first county junior championship title too. They can have no arguments though; scoring only five times from play compared to Ardagh’s dozen, and raising only three flags for the entire second-half, are only a couple of the aspects in which the East Mayo outfit were second best.
Ardagh were already eight points in front when presented the luxury of an extra player for the last fifteen minutes following the dismissal of Gaels captain Jack Ronayne. That simply aided a comfortable crowning of the club officially founded in 1978, with a third Ardagh goal late on by Tom Varkonda capping their greatest day.
“At half-time I’d have definitely taken a one point win,” manager Sean Carey told the at full-time. “We started very nervously, and I suppose that’s to be expected when you’re a small club and it’s your first [county final] at MacHale Park. But I suppose we were here in a league final last year against Aghamore and it was similar to that; we were very poor in the first-half.
“Every game this year we’ve had to come and do the damage in the second-half. I couldn’t be prouder of them. There’s some really good footballers there and I think the best thing is that we play proper football, it’s good to watch and I think that’s the way it should be. And it’s great when you win like that too.”
Kicking seven wides and scoring none of their four attempts at the Eastern Gaels goal in the first-half, it looked like the North Mayo outfit might be in a spot of bother at the turnaround, particularly with the elements now against them. But like the phrase attributed to Mayo’s All-Ireland champions this year, Ardagh kept on swinging.
“I’d have rathered there wasn’t as much swinging in the first-half to be honest because we took on things we should never have been doing,” said a smiling Sean Carey. “Any team that I’d be looking after, you do the right thing generally, and we didn’t in the first-half. But I think when we got it together, we really did show that we have good footballers all over the pitch. And I would rather win like that than the old rules and the way football was, because that was driving me crazy to be honest, even going to those games.”
The early indicators, however, had been that Eastern Gaels were going to make life extremely uncomfortable for Ardagh. They had three points on the board by the seventh minute, through Dean Lyons, Michael McGarry, a wonderfully executed ’45 into the breeze, and Dara Flanagan, and might also have had two early goals except that Ardagh goalkeeper Gary Kenny produced a stunning fingertip save to deny Lyons in the second minute who also prodded wide of Kenny’s right-hand post in the ninth.
Tony Carey, the manager’s teenage son, struck Ardagh’s opening two points, the first on four minutes, the second a free in the 13th, having just forced a save from Gaels goalkeeper Ronan Forde. The free was the first of many earned by All-Ireland winner James Carr who was to cause no end of problems for Ronayne, the Eastern Gaels full-back.
Ardagh took the lead for the first time on the quarter hour mark, as Brendan Carr drove over a two-pointer from 50 metres, and Carey and Stephen Rochford quickly extended the advantage to 0-6 to 0-3 with a point apiece.
Carr had shots at goal in the 17th, 19th and 26th minutes, the first ending up as a sideline ball, the other two as points, with one cracking the crossbar on its way over. It meant the gap between the teams had grown to five points with as many minutes of the first-half left to play.
But Eastern Gaels had always looked threatening at the other end, with Gary Kenny making further saves to deny Dara Flanagan in the 19th and 22nd minutes before the umpire eventually reached for the green flag on Gaels’ behalf in the 26th minute. The awareness of Michael McGarry to spot the run of Jack Madden inside the cover was matched only by Madden’s exquisite finish into the bottom left corner. It was Gaels’ first score in 19 minutes and when Flanagan and McGarry added three points from frees before half-time, McGarry’s from two-point range, the Blue and Gold were suddenly changing ends in control of the scoreboard, 1-6 to 0-8, with the diagonal breeze at their backs hereafter.
There’s no doubt that joint managers and brothers, Peter and Paul Walshe, will wonder about how their team’s chances of victory would have further improved if converting one of the three goal opportunities that came their way inside the first eleven minutes of the second-half. The first was a dribbler that slipped through Kenny’s hands and had the Ardagh ‘keeper scrambling at his left hand post, the second saw Flanagan follow in on his own point attempt that dropped short to almost score soccer style, while Shane Glynn thought he was about to have a clear shot from the edge of the small square until Ardagh midfielder Brendan Carr arrived on the blindside to intercept Tom Hession’s pass. Instead, all Eastern Gaels had to show for their efforts was a left-footed point by Glynn whereas Ardagh had already made a decisive move towards victory.
Although corner-forward Lee Traynor had a goal attempt blocked, Tony Carey and Brendan Carr kicked a point either side of that before Ardagh’s – and the game’s – first goal eventually arrived on 37 minutes.
There was a hint of good fortune about Dylan Murphy’s score, as the wing-back cut in from the right in search of a point only to see his kick dip into the far corner of Forde’s goal. But there was nothing fortunate about James Carr’s stunning two point free minutes later that sent Ardagh 1-12 to 1-7 ahead. Nor when the team captain instinctively smashed home his side’s second goal off the turf like a Champions League striker, after the ball has spilled free from Traynor’s grasp.
Eastern Gaels had lost Ronayne – an earlier yellow followed by a black for his pull-down on Traynor – by the time another Tony Carey free saw Ardagh hold a 2-13 to 1-7 lead entering the final ten minutes.
Referee James Regan brought forward a free for Dara Flanagan to kick a two pointer for Gaels and Jason Jennings added another from play, but not before an Adam Naughton point had been supplemented by another Ardagh goal, as Carr and Traynor combined to set up wing-forward Tom Varkonda who finished low off his left boot.
But for Ronan Forde, who turned a late Tony Carey shot past the post, and a goal-line clearance by a defender to deny Carey a second time, this could easily have spiralled into an even heavier defeat for Eastern Gaels.
According to Sean Carey, changes of positions and personnel are what titled the game in Ardagh’s favour after half-time.
“Adam Foody to full-back, he was outstanding I thought. And Enda O’Hora was back with us today, hasn’t been able to play for a while, he was outstanding when he came in as well. I think all the players up front… I know James caught a lot of kickouts but Tony and Lee’s ability to show for the ball, it keeps you in every game. They’re really good, the two of them in there.”
He’s excited, too, at the club’s promotion to intermediate.
“Our underage players, Tony’s age group would have played Castlebar a couple of times at under-15 and they’d have beaten them. They were well able to compete all the way up and I think that stands to you then.
“They have a different mentality, they want to play at the higher level, they want to be playing those clubs.”
Scorers – Ardagh: James Carr 1-1-2 (1tpf), Tony Carey 0-0-5 (2f), Dylan Murphy and Tom Varkonda 1-0-0, Brendan Carr 0-1-1, Stephen Rochford and Adam Naughton 0-0-1 each.
Eastern Gaels: Dara Flanagan 0-1-2 (1tpf), Jack Madden 1-0-0, Michael McGarry 0-1-1 (1tpf, ’45), Jason Jennings 0-1-0, Dean Lyons and Shane Glynn 0-0-1 each.
Ardagh: Gary Kenny; Dean Martyn, Joe Carr, Fionn Barrett; Dylan Murphy, Adam Foody, Adam Naughton; Sean Moore, Brendan Carr; Tom Varkonda, Tony Carey, Stephen Rochford; Lee Traynor, James Carr, Paddy Walsh. Subs: Enda O’Hora (for Joe Carr 34), Ger Haran (for Traynor 38-40, temp), Darach Gough (for Walsh 42), Ruairí O’Boyle (for Gough 51), Diarmuid Barrett (for James Carr 53-54, temp), John Cafferty (for James Carr 60+1, inj).
Eastern Gaels: Ronan Forde; Tony Aylward, Jack Ronayne, Rowan Johnson; Jarlath Concannon, Tom Hession, Shane Glynn; Luke Mannion, Henry Concannon; Michael McGarry, Jason Jennings, Darren Concannon; Dara Flanagan, Jack Madden, Dean Lyons. Subs: Connor Grogan (for Lyons 39), Charlie Johnston (for D Concannon 44), Nathan Hession (for H Concannon 51), Ethan Owens (for Mannion 55), Ryan Keadin (for McGarry 60).
REF: James Regan (Hollymount-Carramore)
