Away from reaching the last four
Barry O’Mahony.
There was an urgency about everything Coolera-Strandhill did, starting with Sean Murphy in defence, with the Dohertys, Leo and Ross, also toiling effectively.
In a first-half that saw Sean Taylor have a goal chance blocked after being set up by Aaron O’Boyle, with Niall Murphy lashing another goal attempt over, Coolera-Strandhill had Conor McDonagh black-carded in the 25th minute.
Coolera-Strandhill were rightly vexed by another black card, the one shown to Niall Murphy after 42 minutes. They could point to energetic tackling by Brian Marren, a CoolaneyMullinabreena substitute, that, on another day, might have yielded a black card sanction.
While Murphy was watching on from the sideline Coolera-Strandhill scored their third goal – a neat finish from Conor Burke, with Leo Doherty providing the assist.
In the midst of Coolera-Strandhill’s hunt for scores, there was a CoolaneyMullinabreena team trying their best not to be the party-poopers.
Padraig McGourty’s charges were certainly not there to be passive or patsies in a Coolera-Strandhill score fest – they had their own agenda because a win would have got them out of the relegation play-offs.
A return of just three first-half points summed up their inadequacies but David Barrett went close to a goal with an angled shot that Keelan Harte, the Coolera-Strandhill goalkeeper, diverted onto the crossbar.
Even as Coolera-Strandhill’s lead kept increasing in the second-half, Coolaney-Mullinabreena kept battling and midfielder Barry Gorman netted with a strong shot – from Nathan Mullen’s pass – shortly after Niall
Murphy’s black card.
While Coolera-Strandhill will be so frustrated at the way things turned out here, they’ll rightly reflect on injuries that ruled out the likes of Peter Laffey, Tristan Gilligan and Oran McDonagh for this fixture.
There was that costly draw with Drumcliffe-Rosses Point at Kent Park and another corrosive outcome was their four-point defeat of St Farnan’s – a win, yes, but CooleraStrandhill should have won by a much bigger margin as they were nine points up at one stage in that fixture. For a few scores more, eh? (1-6, 2f), Niall Murphy (c) (3-6, 1-1f), Conor Burke (1-1)
Subs used: Luke Bree, Karol O’Neill, Donagh Flynn, Adam Higgins, Coolaney-Mullinabreena: Cathal Finan, Conor Johnston, Declan McCormack, Kevin O’Kennedy, David Barrett (0-1), Nathan Mullen, Conor Gorman, Gavin Gorman, Barry Gorman (1-1), Niall Connolly, Ray Connolly, Criostóir Davey (c), Eoin Barrett, Shane O’Brien (0-3, 3f), Enda Kivlehan Subs used: Darren Coleman, Sean Gorman, Niall O’Dowd, Brian Marren, Conor McCormack
Referee: John Gilmartin
PENSIVE: Coolera-Strandhill joint-managers Enda Mitchell and Adrian McPartland watched their side go agonisingly close to getting the required result.