Two sides with cause for replay optimism

As the large crowd left Quigabar last Sunday evening following a rip-roaring conclusion to the Sligo county final, all the chatter was about who was better placed heading into the replay.

The time between a drawn game and the replay always leaves plenty of room for questions and talking points but it’s hard to decipher just who will be the happier side heading into the re-fixture on the weekend after next.

On the face of it, Shamrock Gaels will be thrilled to have a second bite at winning a first county title in 33 years.

Trailing by five points in the second-half and never quite getting to full tilt, they would have been forgiven for thinking it just wasn't going to be their day when several decent opportunities to score were passed up.

Keelan Harte, the Coolera/Strandhill goalkeeper, made a handful of very good saves (and also stopped a David Quinn penalty before it had to be retaken) while some of the Gaels’ usually accurate kickers seemed a tad off the mark on Sunday.

All of that being said, they showed tremendous resolve to dig out a draw, no one more so than Quinn himself when he converted the penalty second time around after Harte was deemed to have stepped off his line for the initial effort, and then nail the final free of the game for a priceless two-pointer with the last kick.

Digging a little deeper, however, may present an altogether different scenario heading into the next battle between these two sides.

Shamrock Gaels did pass up a lot of good scoring opportunities, and you could say they won’t be as profligate the next day, but will they get that amount of chances second time round?

They will kick themselves for conceding a goal on the stroke of half-time, which left them trailing by five points with the advantage of the wind to come in the second period. Two would have been a far more manageable deficit.

And, in the second-half, they did appear to be a little rash in their shot selection, which is usually on point.

Coolera/Strandhill will be furious with themselves for having let the lead slip in the closing moments when they were punished for a three-up breach. Had that not happened, it’s likely they would now be toasting a third successive county title.

Nonetheless, the defending champions will feel as though they have some room for improvement. The Dohertys, Leo and Ross, excelled on either wing and chipped in with a goal apiece while Harte in goal also stood out, but one feels there’s more to come from a Coolera/Strandhill team that has match winners all over the park. Sean Murphy was another of their standout players, contributing a goal and a point from a couple of strong raids forward into the breeze in the second-half.

They threatened, at times, to put a sizeable enough gap between the sides in that second period without ever really kicking on when they had, it appeared, the lion’s share of the momentum.

Many assumed, perhaps on the basis of their ability to grind out a series of tight wins on their way to the Connacht title last season, that Coolera/Strandhill would close matters out in their customary efficient manner. Their craft and composure was in clear evidence in a potentially sticky period in the first-half after conceding the first goal of the game to Dillon McDermott, when they went on to reel off the next six points in-a-row.

There were, too, some uncharacteristic wides on the part of the Seasiders but their experience over recent years will now prove crucial as they prepare for another county final replay, having won last year’s title second-time round at the expense of St Molaise Gaels. So they won't be too perturbed by the prospect of having to do it all over again.

Much of the pre-match discussion centred around the star forwards on either side: Niall Murphy of Coolera/Strandhill and David Quinn of Shamrock Gaels.

It’s a mark of both players that in a game where the pressure was really on, and they were both being closely watched by their direct opponent, Murphy ended up with 0-6 and Quinn with 1-8. That said, placed balls provided the bulk of those scores, but they too still have to be converted.

Murphy was reasonably well curtailed by the diligent marking of Evan Lyons, who again enhanced his reputation as one of the top young defenders in the province. Their battle was one of the most interesting subplots of the afternoon, with both players entitled to thinking that they edged it.

One always got the sense, however, despite Coolera/Strandhill’s scoreboard supremacy in the second-half, that Shamrock Gaels remained in contention because the men in maroon continuously created chances in the final third.

They met a goalkeeper in inspired form but some rash decision-making when presented with opportunities for points will also be a source of frustration for the Gaels management. The positive there is it’s quite an easy fix and some of that decision making or lack of accuracy could be put down to acclimatising to the intensity of a county final at senior level for the first time.

Indeed, it’s a relevant point. The inevitable excitement and hype surrounding Gaels’ appearing in the showpiece event contributed plenty to the build-up ahead of Sunday, but now all of that is out of the way, the mood will be much different heading into the replay. They now have experience of playing in a county final.

Both sides will feel as though there are areas for real improvement ahead of the replay, which will be another fascinating duel, so matters are finely poised as we await the replay on the weekend after next.