St Farnan’s give Coolera-Strandhill a scare
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Homeland SFC
Group Two – Round One Coolera-Strandhill 2-15 St Farnan’s 0-17
THE FAVOURITES for this year’s Owen B Hunt Cup, CooleraStrandhill, against the winners of last year’s Joe McMorrow Cup, St Farnan’s. There could only be a clearcut winner, surely?
But last Sunday’s Homeland Senior Football Championship Group Two fixture at Tubbercurry’s Kilcoyne Park, although won by CooleraStrandhill, wasn’t a mauling.
This might have been a surprise given how impressive CooleraStrandhill were in their previous weekend’s hammering of Tourlestrane in the Furey’s Coaches Senior Football League Division One final.
St Farnan’s, however, showed tremendous mettle throughout and ended up losing by four points, 2-15 to 0-17, with three unanswered points in the closing stages taking the sheen off what otherwise would have been a seven-point gap.
COOLERA-STRANDHILL:
The Hunt Cup favourites have a free weekend – they’re next in action on Sunday, September 4, when they face Drumcliffe-Rosses Point at Kent Park. ST FARNAN’S: The Dromore WestTempleboy outfit face Tourlestrane at St Brendan’s GAA Park, Corballa, on Sunday (1pm), having drawn with the holders in a recent SFL Division One fixture.
One of the scorers of these late points, Patrick O’Connor, kicked seven points in total for the west Sligo outfit, and two of these scores were particularly immense examples of finishing by the county player. Coolera-Strandhill’s answer to Patrick O’Connor, Niall Murphy, contributed 1-7 for the winners, and it was his goal in the closing stages that killed off the St Farnan’s challenge, despite their late flurry of scores. It was a goal from Niall Murphy’s younger brother, Sean, that put Coolera-Strandhill in the driving seat prior to the second-half water break. That goal, which came from a potent surge upfield, gave last year’s county finalists a nine-point cushion, 1-13 to 0-7. The first-half was evenly contested and St Farnan’s, who benefitted from playing in the top tier of this year’s Furey’s Coaches Senior Football League, were holding their own. The team guided by Adrian Smyth and Barnes Kelly were only two points down at the water break, 0-3 to 0-1, and behind by a similar margin at half-time, 0-7 to 0-5.
Just as they would do at the end of the second-half, St Farnan’s were courageous in the closing stages of the opening period and three points in succession, including two gems by Patrick O’Connor, cut CooleraStrandhill’s lead from five points to two.
Both sides had to deal with black cards in that first-half – St Farnan’s defender James O’Connell was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes as was Coolera-Strandhill’s Peter Laffey, who earlier played his part in one of
Niall Murphy’s scores.
Aaron O’Boyle, who would leave the fray because of an injury, had a goal chance in the opening period but his attempt was saved by St Farnan’s netminder Simon Mullarkey. Coolera-Strandhill kicked on in the second-half, as Barry O’Mahony, who impressed, and
Conor Burke were among the scorers as the Division One champions established a platform.
The winners welcomed back Keelan Cawley from injury – he came on for the start of the second-half – and there was a return to action for St Farnan’s player James Weir, the outstanding county hurler, who was almost a year out with a knee injury.
St Farnan’s: Simon Mullarkey, James O’Connell, Shane Molloy, Conor Gordon, David Hallinan, Eamonn Kilgannon (0-1), Shane O’Brien, Trevor Kilgannon, Martin Mulligan, Fionn Connolly (0-2), Ciarán O’Connor (0-3, 2f), Finnian Cawley (0-2), Thomas Cawley, Patrick O’Connor (0-7, 2f), Matthew Lang (0-1)
Subs used: James Weir, Gavin Connolly (01), Mark Devaney
Coolera-Strandhill: Gerard Murphy, Sean Murphy (1-0), Conor McDonagh, Jonathan Cassidy, Luke Bree, Ross O’Carroll, Aaron O’Boyle, Kevin Banks (0-1), Peter Laffey, Mark McDaniel, Leo Doherty, Cillian McCahey, Barry O’Mahony (0-4), Niall Murphy (1-7, 4f), Conor Burke (0-2) Subs used: Ciaran Flynn (0-1), Fiachra Staunton, Donncha Beirne, Tristan Gilligan, Keelan Cawley
Referee: John Griffin