If Harps can get out with a 5/6 point defeat, it is a moral victory of sorts
For the 6th time in 20 years we have a Tourlestrane and Eastern Harps County Senior final, these two teams have dominated the Sligo Football landscape for the past 25 years winning 15 titles between them in this period of time.
Most of the games between them have been low scoring affairs with an average winning margin of 4 points with the largest winning margin 8 points when Tourlestrane won in 1997.
I feel both these stats will be increased next Sunday with Tourlestrane to win comfortably by more than eight points. I know these views sound derogatory towards Harps but they are in bonus territory by being in this final which will not bring out many neutral supporters next Sunday.
In what has been an overall poor Senior Championship, Tourlestrane booked their final place with a replay win over Tubbercurry with a masterful counter attacking style of play, defending in numbers and breaking at pace to disappoint the crowd that came expecting a close encounter.
Tubbercurry just couldn’t break down this resolute defending and turned the ball over to easy which gave Tourlestrane the chances to break.
This was best illustrated by the Tourlestrane eighth point when a Tubber player under no pressure gave a sloppy pass which was intercepted with Liam Gaughan firing over at the other end.
There is no doubt Tubbercurry will be disappointed with their performance as they showed no enterprise and played the game at a snail’s pace allowing Tourlestrane plenty of time to set up their defensive structure.
Next Sundays game is similar to 2015 when Marys played Curry with Marys expected to win well after taking out Tourlestrane in the semi-final, which was deemed the final.
Marys won by 6 in the end after conceding 2 late goals when emptying the bench that took the look off the score line from a Curry point of view.
In that game St Mary’s clocked up 21 scores in total which is the highest number of scores in a Sligo County Senior final which I feel Tourlestrane can improve on if they go for it next Sunday.
Unfortunately, Harps don’t have a marquee forward to keep the score board ticking over since the retirement of Paul Taylor and will struggle to get scores certainly against a compact Tourlestrane defensive system.
Not since 1988/1989 has a team in Sligo won back to back County titles which incidentally was St Patricks last win in this competition but Tourlestrane are now odds on to put two together.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe while winning 9 titles since 1994 Tourlestrane have only qualified for the final the following year on two occasions but were deprived of the double both times by next Sundays opponents Eastern Harps in 1998 and 2010.
From Eastern Harps point of view, I feel if they can keep the game to a 5 or 6-point defeat it will be a moral victory for them as I can’t see them having the threat up front to stay in the game with Tourlestrane putting them under a lot of pressure once they hit the attacking 45 metre line.
Harps will need a lot of composure when on the ball but they will need to break at pace and try to get the ball into the attacking zone before Tourlestrane get defensively set up.
I am not being disrespectful to Harps as I feel they have over achieved this year which they should be proud of and with a lot of work going on at underage within the club they will continue to be at the business end of the championship over the next number of years but it won’t happen for them this year.
I have commented previously on the decline of club football in Sligo and this is demonstrated by the shift in geographical power with six senior clubs in the North division with three from the South after Curry’s relegation and only Harps from the East with no representative from the West.
While this shouldn’t be surprising as the majority of the population of County Sligo is living in the Northern segment of the County, however the quality of the majority of these sides are not at a level close to challenging for honours.
Last Sunday St Johns won the Kennedys intermediate title after a replay win over St Farnan’s in an exciting final.
The quality of this game far exceeded the drawn game with some excellent scores by both teams in the first half in particular, with 11 scores in a row from play of the highest quality with St Farnan’s 9 to 5 up at half time playing superb football.
The turning point in the game came early in the second half when an elementary free from the left from Alan Keane came off the post with Tommy Kelly reacting the quickest to fire home which turned the tide in Johns favour who had the five-point half time deficit wiped out within 5 minutes of the restart.
While the West Sligo side battled manly and remained in the game they never looked like regaining the initiative with Johns always in control thereafter. For Johns they are straight back to senior level after dropping down last year, for Farnan’s they have shown that they are a very good side with age on their side and will bounce back from this disappointment with a number of promising young players.
NOT SINCE 1988/89 HAS A TEAM IN SLIGO WON BACK TO BACK COUNTY TITLES. TOURLESTRANE ARE ODDS ON.