Replay is a big Deel as Rovers return to top flight
Diarmaid Walsh and Fionan Duffy celebrate Crossmolina's return to the Mayo senior football championship.
Crossmolina Deel Rovers finally turned the tables on Moy Davitts to book their return to the senior tier they once dominated, as winners of a titanic intermediate final replay on Saturday night last. It was their first win over the Moysiders in four attempts over the course of the past two championships and given that Brian Benson’s side really should have won the original fixture six days previous, having led by four points entering second-half stoppage time, a second bite of the cherry has probably never tasted so sweet.
Next year will mark 30 years since Crossmolina’s first of six Mayo SFC titles in an 11-year period and it’s with a young and exciting squad that the Deel Rovers will return to the Moclair Cup competition, with more than half the team selected on Saturday having also won a county under-21 ‘B’ title last year. Consider, too, the wave of players coming behind those again, with Crossmolina winners of a Mayo U16 ‘A’ title last year and reaching this year’s U17 ‘A’ final, and the upward trajectory of the St Tiernan’s Park outfit is undeniable.
They outscored Moy Davitts by 1-4 to 0-1 down the stretch to emerge as four point winners, when it was by the same margin they had trailed after 13 minutes. Niall Coggins’ second goal in six days was the key score; his first had come a mere 14 seconds into the drawn final but this one arrived on the hour mark and sent the North Mayo side in front for the first time since Jordan Flynn had scored the opening point of the game after only 75 seconds.
There was a touch of good fortune about how the goal arrived, as a wild point attempt by Patrick Leddy dropped a long way short of the Moy Davitts posts but broke kindly for corner-forward Diarmaid Walsh who popped the ball over to Coggins whose task of punching into the net was relatively straightforward.
With Moy Davitts now three points behind and frantically chasing the game, Fionan Duffy popped over an insurance point on the counterattack in the fourth and final minute of stoppage time, upon which word was quickly dispatched to the few still left in Crossmolina to get the bonfires ready – Benson’s boys would soon be returning to carry the Sweeney Cup across the Deel.
It is easy enough to argue that Crossmolina are deserved champions. Over the course of the two matches they outscored Moy Davitts 2-19 to 1-12 from open play, with James Maheady scoring eight points of that – four in each game. A member of the Mayo team that reached the 2022 All-Ireland U17 final, the two-footed attacker looks a real prospect and someone who the county’s senior management may wish to view at close quarters sooner rather than later. But it was current Mayo senior player Conor Loftus who picked up the man-of-the-match award after a second-half tour de force by Crossmolina’s centre-back. Cian McHale had just kicked Moy Davitts’ final point in the 47th minute when Loftus hit back-to-back singles to level the contest at 0-12 apiece, all while Rovers were down to 14 players after Loftus’ teammate and fellow county man Jordan Flynn visited the sin-bin for a late tackle on opposition full-back Neil Murphy.
There’s no doubt but that Moy Davitts will have regrets; apart from leading by two points at the time of Flynn’s temporary dismissal, they had also led 0-5 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter thanks to pairs of points by Cian McHale (frees) and Brian Reape and one by Ronan Clarke, but their advantage really could have been more. Reape had intercepted a kick-out by Crossmolina goalkeeper JP Mulhern who managed to turn Reape’s subsequent goal effort onto the crossbar and out for a ’45, while Reape flashed another effort inches over in the 13th minute after a high ball into the Crossmolina backline was poorly dealt with.
Gradually, however, Crossmolina began to settle, and a pair of Fionan Duffy points, including a free, narrowed the gap to two points, which remained the margin after an exchange between Cian McHale, a free, and Conor Loftus, his first point of the evening. But the Maroon and White were leaving plenty of chances behind them too, with Leddy, JP Mulhern, from a ’45, and Duffy, twice from play, all failing to bisect the posts.
Stephen Clarke picked off Moy Davitts’ final point of the first-half in the 24th minute after which Diarmaid Walsh and James Maheady opened their accounts for Crossmolina, whose deficit was down to the minimum, 0-7 to 0-6, at the interval. They could have even taken the lead in stoppage time if a punched goal effort by Diarmuid Coggins had not been stopped on the line but in truth, Moy Davitts should have been disappointed to only be one point in front; aside from their early goal chances, their all-round performance level had increased significantly on that of six days previous.
Maheady was having to deal not only with the close marking of Oisin McHugh but the screen that Conall Quinn, a late call-up to the Moy Davitts team, was providing in front. But the class and intelligence of the Crossmolina corner-forward was to come to the fore after the restart, albeit it was a second-half that began with Colm McHale and Brian Reape striking over two belters of points either side of one from Leddy, to see Moy Davitts into a 0-9 to 0-7 lead after 34 minutes.
Maheady levelled matters with two points in the space of 40 seconds, as Jordan Flynn majestically fetched the kick-out of goalkeeper Chris McGlynn after Maheady’s first, to set-up the second. And while Moy Davitts restored their two points lead courtesy of singles by Anthony Jordan and Cian McHale, a free, Maheady hit his third on the spin for Crossmolina just as they lost Flynn to his 46th minute black card.
It was a sign of the spirit within though, that Cross’ came from behind to level the game in the midfielder – and vice-captain’s – absence, countering Cian McHale’s first – and only – point from play with two of their own, both from the boot of Conor Loftus, the first laid on by Diarmuid Coggins, the second by James Maheady.
By the 50th minute, Moy Davitts had decided to replace three of their five players who had scored from play but unlike when Brian Heneghan appeared to score a crucial goal in the drawn game, there was no similar impact off the bench this time around.
Cian McHale and Fionan Duffy both missed chances to kick their sides in front before the return of Flynn in the 56th minute, and sub Heneghan and Duffy, again, did likewise after Crossmolina were restored to their full complement – all of which brought us to stoppage time and the real prospect that like the curtain-raising replayed junior final, this replay too could go all the way to extra-time.
But Crossmolina were having none of it, as Niall Coggins and Fionan Duffy each stepped forward to write their names into local lore.
Scorers – Crossmolina: James Maheady 0-4, Niall Coggins 1-0, Fionan Duffy (1f) and Conor Loftus 0-3 each, Jordan Flynn (m), Diarmaid Walsh and Patrick Leddy 0-1 each.
Moy Davitts: Cian McHale 0-5 (4f), Brian Reape 0-3, Ronan Clarke, Stephen Clarke, Anthony Jordan and Colm McHale 0-1 each.
Crossmolina Deel Rovers: JP Mulhern; Diarmuid Fox, Kevin Mulhern, Matthew Gordetsky; Aaron Coggins, Conor Loftus, Lorcan Loftus; Daragh Syron, Jordan Flynn; Diarmuid Coggins, Fionan Duffy, Niall Coggins; Diarmaid Walsh, Patrick Leddy, James Maheady. Subs: Stephen Duffy (for L Loftus 38), Cathal Carolan (for Fox 52).
Moy Davitts: Chris McGlynn; Cathal Clarke, Neil Murphy, Jack Dunleavy; Sean Kelly, Oisin McHugh, Conall Quinn; Anthony Jordan, Colm McHale; Jamie Clarke, Conor Reid, Stephen Clarke; Cian McHale, Brian Reape, Ronan Clarke. Subs: Padraig Ruane (for S Clarke ht), Darragh Ruane and Brian Heneghan (for Kelly and R Clarke 38), Ryan Kenny (for Jordan 50).
REF: Garryowen McMahon (Davitts)
