Knockmore withstand Westport storm to lift junior crown
Knockmore’s Mickey McHale in a tussle for possession with Westport’s Oisin Ryall.
Knockmore survived a late attempted ambush to eventually oversee Westport and be crowned New Junior ‘A’ champions, in Parke, last Sunday. Contrary to the weather conditions that had caused the abandonment of the original fixture in MacHale Park two weeks earlier, this game took place on a beautifully mild October afternoon.
Knockmore dominated right from the very start with goalkeeper Ryan McDonnell and Fergal Keane, who would turn in a man-of-the-match display, contributing three settling scores early on.
Westport struggled at first with Knockmore’s press on their back-line and found it increasingly difficult to get the ball out of their own half. A further blow for Westport came when Declan Melvin came storming through their defence to receive a pop pass and bury a goal to increase Knockmore’s tally.
John Grady eventually stabilised matters for Westport and got his side on the scoreboard with a well-taken free from the 13-metre line. Grady, a minute later, followed that up with another free, this time a brilliant effort from distance.
The momentum was beginning to turn and Westport looked to capitalise. A long ball was launched in on top of the Knockmore defence in the direction of Westport forward Oisin Moran who gathered, turned his man and fired the ball past McDonnell into the Knockmore net, reducing his side’s arrears to the minimum.
But the North Mayo men soon responded with Melvin again making a darting run directly at the Westport defence before Liam Shevlin stopped him in his tracks by pulling him to the ground. Shevlin was shown a black card and Westport found themselves down a man.
As the first-half was drawing to a close both Fergal Keane and Keith Ruttledge pitched in with scores each to kick Knockmore into a 1-8 to 1-2 lead at the half-time break.
Westport started the second-half as they finished the first, with fourteen men, but it was the West Mayo side who got the first score with a cleverly taken mark by John Grady. However, it wasn’t long before the ball was back in Knockmore’s court as they got themselves up and running again with a superb solo score from Sean Ruttledge which was followed by an equally impressive point by Tadhg Staunton.
Knockmore really excelled from that moment onwards with Westport finding it difficult to grapple with their opponent’s power going forward. The Coveys began to change tack and get bodies behind the ball and attempt to counterattack, but the Knockmore players were comfortable with keeping the ball and biding their time for a gap to appear in the Westport defence.
With the final heading into its dying embers, Knockmore found themselves in a more than comfortable position, leading Westport by ten points. But the men in blue had one last throw of the dice up their sleeve and let off the shackles for the last few minutes. Lorcan Silke and Peter Corcoran very nearly turned this final upside down after scoring a goal each, just sixty seconds apart, to bring the deficit back to just four points. But this attempted coup was too little too late as Knockmore saw out the remaining few minutes to secure the New Junior ‘A’ title.
Winning captain Ryan Casey afterwards described it as a “long two weeks” since the abandoned final.
“We made ourselves work for it there at the end, but thankfully we got over the line,” said the Knockmore centre-back who also reflected on Westport’s late fightback.
“When they got the two goals, it was simply about winning the kickout, just get the ball and keep it. We knew there wasn’t much time left, but we had that four-point cushion and it was about maintaining that.”
