Gortnor’s golden greats
News Item added:08-03-2010
By Anthony Hennigan
GORTNOR ABBEY 2-14 CLIFDEN CS 0-19 (AET)
THE greatest game ever played? Who knows. Gortnor Abbey’s finest hour? Almost certainly.
Actually, it was an hour plus an extra 20 minutes of pulsating football during which the Mayo school equalised eight times and took the lead on four occasions before eventually grinding the last drop of life from the Clifden challenge.
The Galway students, for whom this season was their traditionally rugby school’s first foray into colleges football in over three decades, had provided the finest of opposition. In fact, for long periods, Clifden looked the better team. Clifden looked to have the best footballers. Clifden’s physically bigger players looked as if they could be the difference.
Looks, however, can be deceiving.
Something else so often looked for in a team is spirit. It is not a physical thing and so can only be seen by action, like when tigerish Gortnor defenders Paul Larkin and Alan Stadler won 30/70 balls or when Clifden’s Cathal O’Neill and Ian Heanue converted two very late frees to force extra time or, more crucially, when Gortnor Abbey rescued a four points deficit in the second half of that extra time.
Their team staring at defeat, midfielders Thomas Cafferty and Adrian Leonard kicked a point and goal respectively and even though falling behind again, Gortnor rallied once more to have Leonard brilliantly land the match-winner in the final minute.
Twenty metres from the end line and tight to the left wing, that was a score worthy to win any game. But then so were so many of the others that went before it. With 10 quality points inside the first 13 minutes, a rip-roaring opening quarter ended with the sides deadlocked at 0-5 apiece; five times Gortnor had equalised before Adrian Leonard’s third point of the game handed them the lead for the first time. Aidan Williams, Enda O’Hora and Sean Mulligan had also split the posts but it was when Mulligan goaled in the 20th minute that first indication was given that Gortnor were a right match for their stylish opponents.
Conaill Joyce and Cathal O’Neill, two each, Ian Heanue, a free, and Eamon McCann had all risen white flags for Clifden but from the time Sean Mulligan’s point attempt from the left wing fortuitously dipped into the far corner of Brendan O’Farrell’s net, it kept the Galway boys chasing the game until after half-time.
The teams had exchanged ends with Gortnor 1-7 to 0-9 ahead, but Heanue’s fourth point of the game levelled matters five minutes after the restart before his attacking colleague, Cathal O’Neill, swung over a free to regain his side the lead at the three-quarter mark. Two points, however, in 15 second half minutes was a poor return for what was Clifden’s most dominant spell of the game.
The Ians, Bately and Heanue, were denied goals by some last-ditch defending by Brendan Kelly and Alan Stadler of Gortnor Abbey whose goalkeeper Shane Keane, under pressure, was confidently plucking ball after ball from the skies. And even though powerful Clifden centre-back Jack Vaughan’s influence was growing with each passing minute, so too that of marauding corner-back Derek Heanue, not even those pair were able prevent what at the time appeared a match-winning push by Gortnor Abbey.
A pair of long range Austin O’Toole points and another Leonard free had the Crossmolina representatives 1-10 to 0-11 ahead when Leonard then offloaded to Sean Mulligan who seemed certain to bag a second goal, with just three minutes left to play. ‘Keeper O’Farrell won that battle however, and Clifden capitalised on their let-off to force extra-time courtesy of O’Neill and Heanue frees.
Gortnor Abbey began the new period in a lively vein and would have been further than an Adrian Leonard point in front had the dipping shot of Keith Loftus not walloped the post or had Austin O’Toole not curled the rebound wide.
Punishment came in the form of five consecutive Clifden points either side of half-time, including three from rejuvenated midfielder Eamon McCann. Trailing by 0-18 to 1-11, it seemed as if Gortnor’s goose was cooked – especially when Thomas Cafferty’s thunderbolt was then helped over the Clifden crossbar.
Adrian Leonard – now moved to full-forward with O’Toole sent to combat Clifden’s aerial prowess at midfield – was to experience better fortune in front of goal on 75 minutes. The swift exchange of passes between Cafferty and Loftus allowed possession be offloaded to the right man in the right place at the right time as Leonard blasted past Brendan O’Farrell.
The sides were barely level for a minute however, as Cathal O’Neill shot Clifden’s 19th point of the day but when wing-forward Brendan Carr became the eighth Gortnor Abbey player to score and Adrian Leonard drilled over after full-back Eoghan Kilkenny’s pick off the ground, the cup was Crossmolina bound – and an army of ecstatic Abbey men along with it.
SCORERS – Gortnor Abbey: Adrian Leonard 1-6 (0-4f), Sean Mulligan 1-1, Austin O’Toole 0-2, Enda O’Hora, Tony Dever, Brendan Carr, Thomas Cafferty and Aidan Williams 0-1 each. Clifden: Ian Heanue 0-6 (4f), Cathal O’Neill 0-5 (2f), Eamon McCann 0-4, Conaill Joyce 0-3, Conor Nee 0-1.
GORTNOR ABBEY: Shane Keane; Brendan Kelly, Alan Stadler, Paul Larkin; Kevin Armstrong, Michael McGrath, Aidan Williams; Thomas Cafferty, Adrian Leonard; Keith Loftus, Tony Dever, Brendan Carr; Enda O’Hora, Austin O’Toole, Sean Mulligan. Subs: Paul Rowland (for O’Hora 43), James Maughan (for Armstrong 55), Joseph Carr (for Rowland 72).
CLIFDEN: Brendan O’Farrell; Derek Heanue, Eoghan Kilkenny, John Mannion; Liam De Courcy, Jack Vaughan, Simon Heanue Joyce; Eamon McCann, Shane Sweeney; Ian Heanue, Conaill Joyce, Conor Nee; Cathal O’Neill, Ian Batley, David Black. Subs: Chris Holmes (for Black 35-inj), Sean Nee (for De Courcey 66), Peter Cullen (for Batley 68), John Sullivan (for O’Farrell 77).
Referee: Martin Murphy (Ballinrobe).
