Six minutes of madness sends Conn packing
Moving the goalposts. The frame of the goal slides back under the intense pressure of David McHale’s header for Conn Rangers. Picture: John Corless
A disastrous six minutes first-half spell, in which they conceded three goals, sent Conn Rangers crashing out of the Connacht Cup at the hands of a superior Mervue United side at Mount Falcon on Sunday afternoon.
Rangers started brightly, with Evan Reape and Eoin Prendergast coming close, but they fell behind when ex-Manulla man Rian O’Connor headed home after the home defence failed to clear a free kick on 14 minutes.
Four minutes later, Tom Kidd fired in a second from outside the box when he should have been closed down, and two minutes after that, a breakdown in communication in the Conn defence saw Tuan O’Horo deflect a harmless Kody McCann shot past his own goalkeeper Brian McMahon to put the Galway side three up and safely on their way. McMahon had McCann’s shot covered only for the unfortunate intervention of the centre back.
Rangers were shell-shocked and took a few minutes to regroup. Mervue took the foot off too, and strong tackles by Michael Lavin, in the middle of the heavy pitch, jump-started the hosts’ revival.
Eoin Prendergast should have pulled one back when Mervue goalkeeper Jason Daly, spilled Adam Gallagher’s free kick on the 30th minute, but Prendergast shot wide.
Conn picked up the pace as half-time drew near and were rewarded when David McHale headed home Lee Traynor’s corner at the near post in the 38th minute. It was a poor goal for Mervue to concede and gave hope to Rangers. They battled hard with Gallagher and Lavin leading the revival. McCann sent a Mervue free kick over just before the break.
Ex-Treaty United and Galway United striker Dave Tarmey had a chance when he headed Adam Healy’s shot over immediately after the restart, and then Adam Gallagher reduced the margin to the minimum on 52 minutes when he was given plenty of time by the Mervue defence. Three minutes later Peter Naughton came close to levelling it when his shot was pushed around the post by Jason Daly.
The decisive goal came in the 64th minute at the other end when Adam Healy’s sent in a corner from the right and, and under pressure from a number of Mervue players, the unlucky McMahon spilled the ball into this own net – Conn’s second own goal of the day - to put Mervue 4-2 in front and out of sight.
The corner came about when Rangers captain Owen McNamara perfectly timed a sliding tackle in the box to deny Healy. Mervue’s screams for a penalty were waved away by referee Jimmy Cawley.
A Mikey McHale header bobbled off the crossbar a few minutes later but that was as close as Conn came to rescuing the tie. Despite Rangers going with three at the back and pushing Lee Traynor into midfield, they couldn’t make a breakthrough and ran out of steam as the game drew to a close.
Conn Rangers put in a spirited performance, but Mervue were the better team on the day and deservedly go into the quarter finals of the Connacht Cup. Thornton, Gallagher and Lavin were best for Conn Rangers. Mervue captain Oisin Coyne was their standout player.
“We had high hopes coming into this match,” Conn Rangers captain Owen McNamara said afterwards. “We knew Mervue were a good team, but we couldn't have got off to a worse start if we'd tried. We went three-nil down, which was a nightmare start. We felt we'd played all right, kind of a few errors around the pitch. So, yeah, really disappointing start. We'd done our best, got back to 3-2, but giving ourselves a huge mountain to climb, really.
“You could say that them being in season, and us out of season was a factor. You could use it as an excuse if you wanted. I don't think we'll use it as an excuse. We've been training hard, and we gave a good fight out there, but it wasn't to be on the day. I couldn't fault the lads, especially when we got back to 3-2 today. Peter Naughton had one cleared off the line to get us to three-all. We battled hard and maybe it didn't happen for us today, but when you go 3-0 down, you're giving yourself a huge mountain to climb.”
Conn Rangers manager, Joe Faughnan, said that his side prepared well for this game. “You're ready for a big game like that and you cannot defend like we did in the first 20 minutes,” he said. “You're 3-0 down. The boys show great character we got back to 3-2. Dave McHale scored, Adam Gallagher scored and we threw everyone forward there towards the end, but it just didn't happen for us. They picked us off from a set-piece to make it 4-2. But, listen, they're a good side. They lost 1-0 to Celtic last year in the Connacht Cup final. It was disappointing, I suppose. But at least we fought for it.
“We want to have a big January. The lads have spoken about it over the last few weeks that they want to compete in the big games and they want to be able to play against the Ballinas and the Westports and the Celtics. We've needed a big January and February. Everyone working hard in that. We have the players here. It's just to get that consistency in our performances.”
A minute’s silence was observed before the match for the late Kevin Gallagher, a committee member of Conn Rangers.
