Barna continue to rock in title race

Date Published: 17-Aug-2010

Dara Bradley

BARNA qualified for the last four of the Claregalway Hotel senior football championship for the first time ever since the club was founded in 1965 after a comprehensive win over the 2001 county champions, Annaghdown, at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.

The 1-13 to 2-7 scoreline doesn’t do justice to Barna’s dominance throughout as the underdogs, with probably one of their best all-round team performances in championship football in recent years, smothered and stifled Annaghdown’s challenge with ferocious tackling, hunting in packs and relentless support play.

Lapses in concentration towards the end – and the absence Eoin McDonagh who went off injured – allowed Annaghdown in for two late goals that had the Barna faithful fretting in the extended period of injury time but the seasiders, driven on by top class displays from the likes of Paddy Naughton, Paddy Kennedy, Kieran Hanley, Robbie Curran and Brian and Ray Conneely, held on for a famous three-points win.

The management team of Pat Fallon, Michael Lydon and Bert Curran have this year transformed the perennial ‘whipping boys’ of championship football into a serious outfit that will trouble any team – Barna are far fitter and work harder than in recent campaigns and will face the semi-final stage with buckets of confidence.

Meanwhile, reigning champions Corofin were three minutes away from relinquishing their Galway and Connacht crowns and seeing their three-in-a-row dream go up in smoke,but Gerry Keane’s charges pulled it out of the fire against Caherlistrane with three late points, including a soft 13-metre free in the fourth minute of injury time, at Tuam Stadium on Sunday.

Corofin were lucky to be trailing by just a point (1-3 to 1-4) at the turnaround, as the outsiders tore into them from the off but a cracking goal from Mike Farragher on the stroke of half-time masked Caherlistrane’s dominance. There were talking points aplenty in the second 30 minutes when Eric Monahan, Caherlistrane’s most prolific forward, and Corofin’s Kieran McGrath were both red carded for a goalmouth shemozzle involving several players.

And when Shane O’Brien raised Caherlistrane’s second green flag a minute later, all hell broke loose on the sideline with substitutes and mentors of both sides involved in another shemozzle in front of the stand. When the dust settled Caherlistrane were leading by three points with six minutes remaining and looked destined for a deserved win but Corofin eked out an unlikely draw.

For more, read page 24 of this week’s Connacht Sentinel.

See also Impressive Barna