Battling Monivea-Abbey come up just short in full-bloodied tie

WESTPORT 0-8

MONIVEA-ABBEY 0-7

THE effort from Monivea-Abbey at McHale Park on Sunday was decent and honest but a low chance conversion ratio over the course of an intense hour’s play eventually cost them a place in a first ever Connacht Club intermediate football final.

This was a pretty full-blooded encounter between two well-prepared sides with both defences solidly set up, leaving very little by way of free space inside the 45s – when push came to shove though, Westport just held a very slight scoring edge.

Monivea-Abbey played the first half with the stiff northerly wind at their backs, and when they trailed by 0-3 to 0-1 after the opening 10 minutes, the signs were not good for the Galway champions.

Brian McDermott, Lee Keegan, Shane Scott and fast moving corner forward Colm Moran were doing a lot of damage – Monivea however introduced county minor Fionnán Garvey at the end of the first quarter to match the pace of Moran, and that worked well for the Galway side.

During those opening exchanges, Westport seemed to be playing the game at a slighter higher tempo than Monivea-Abbey but gradually the contest evened out, and by the time the interval whistle sounded, the sides had evenly shared out eight points between them.

The most unusual substitution of the match occurred midway through the first half when referee Ray McBrien had to retired injured with standby official, Michael Duffy from Sligo, taking over the whistle duties.

Many in the crowd of close on 2,000 people at McHale Park expected Westport to turn the screw early in the second half but instead it was Monivea-Abbey who seized the initiative with points from sub Craig Kennedy and Cillian McDaid (free).

Westport were well rattled at this stage and they didn’t manage to draw level at six apiece until the 53rd minute when an element of desperation was creeping into their play.

Twice during the course of the middle chunk of the first half, Westport spurned two clear-cut goal chances. A Phil Keegan goal bound effort in the 43rd minute was cleared off the line by Fionnán Garvey while sub Oisín McLoughlin blasted wide in a straight one-to-one with Monivea keeper, Denis Farragher.

Westport though drew invaluable sustenance from either end of the pitch through the course of the second half. At full back, Kevin Keane gave an exhibition of sterling defensive play while corner forward Lewis Cawley split the posts with three splendidly struck frees.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.