St Attracta’s storm into the final
COLLEGES FOOTBALL CONNACHT SENIOR ‘A’ CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL
AS statements of intent go, this was both impressive and emphatic from St Attracta’s, Tubbercurry as they powered into another Connacht Colleges Senior ‘A’ championship final.
St Gerald’s College, Castlebar had no answer to the pace, power and sheer brilliance of an insatiable St Attracta’s outfit at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence last Wednesday.
The Sligo lads played like young men on a mission from the early stages and two goals from Conall Ryan, along with another from Alan Reilly, saw them freewheel into next Saturday’s final against Rice College, Westport.
St Attracta’s set about booking their place in the final during the second and third quarters as they racked up 2-7 without reply during two dazzling periods of dominance.
Conall Ryan hit the net either side of the half-time with Alan Reilly also helping himself to a goal early in the second half.
Paul Towey from Charlestown, St Attracta’s inspirational captain, and wing-back Liam Kerrigan were at their dynamic best all through, and their incisive runs and clever link-play was the ideal foil to the power, ball-winning ability and sheer presence of the likes of Gavin Gorman, Alan Reilly, Conall Ryan and Red Óg Murphy.
St Gerald’s did their best to make a game of it and actually led by 0-2 to 0-1 after ten minutes but St Attracta’s warmed to their task quickly and took control soon after.
Once Ryan palmed in their first goal from close-range on 22 minutes, the winners never looked back.
Towey (free) and Kerrigan then tacked on points to leave St Attracta’s leading by 1-5 to 0-2 with half-time approaching.
Ironically, Gerald’s played their best football of the day in the five minutes before the break as Jack Harte (2), Mark Cusack and Aaron McHale all hit the target to rally the troops.
That late rally left them behind by 0-6 to 1-6 at the change of ends.
However, any notions that the Mayo lads may have had of mounting a comeback were put to bed during the third quarter as St Attracta’s went to town again.
The Sligo lads rattled off an unanswered 1-3 during that period to kill the game off with Alan Reilly lashing in a magnificent left-footed goal and the talented Red Óg Murphy whipping over a couple of trademark points.
Conor Murray also split the posts from distance as St Gerald’s struggled to cope with their opponents’ relentless hard-running and physicality.
All the Castlebar lads managed in reply was a pointed free from Gavin Durcan, as St Attracta’s continued to pile on the pressure and a second goal from Conall Ryan on 51 minutes was almost inevitable.
The winners were twelve points up by that stage and the game was long over as a contest, but St Gerald’s Ben Murphy drew a big cheer from the large crowd of St Gerald’s fans when he hit the Tubbercurry net with a screamer of a shot six minutes from time.
St Attracta’s ran their bench in the closing stages and signed off in style through points from their dynamic duo of Alan Reilly and Conall Ryan to gloss the final scoreline.
Their margin of victory would have been even bigger in the end had St Gerald’s goalkeeper Ryan Corrigan not pulled off a super save to deny Oisín McCann a fourth goal for the rampant winners.
St Attracta’s will now face Rice College, Westport in a repeat of the recent league final which the Tubbercurry school won by three points.
The final is in Tuam Stadium at 12:30pm on Saturday.
ST ATTRACTA’S
G Gallagher; D Barrett, O Grehan, O McCann; L Kerrigan (0-1), K O’Hara, N Connolly; G Gorman, C Murray (0-1); P Towey (0-3, 2fs), A Reilly (1-1), K O’Kennedy; R Óg Murphy (0-3, 1f), C Ryan (2-2), E Sweeney.
SUBS used: A Perry (0-1), O O’Donnell, M Clavin, J Durkin, R Moylan.
ST GERALD’S
R Corrigan; F Bourke, E McHale, M Dolan; A McHale (0-1), C Beirne, R Reilly; G Durcan (0-2, 1f), D O’Malley; A Walsh, P McDermott, M Cusack (01); U O’Reilly (0-1), J Harte (0-2), B Murphy (1-0).
SUBS used: J McLoughlin, P Beirne, S Martin, P Heneghan, C Mylett, J Deane, A Moran.
REFEREE: D Hunt (Roscommon)