Concannon cuts loose as St James’ advance in title race

St James’ 2-18

An Cheathrú Rua 2-13

ST James’ maintained their 100%-win record in Group One of the 2018 Galway senior football championship when they defeated An Cheathrú Rua by five points in Salthill on Saturday evening.

A third group game victory on the trot has earned the city side a quarter-final place alongside Corofin, their opponents in the final group game, which will decide who tops the table.

An Cheathrú Rua suffered their second loss of the campaign and must muster a win against Claregalway in the last round of group games to secure senior status and avoid the relegation play-offs.

With 20 minutes gone, An Cheathrú Rua were seemingly cruising: Seven points to the good (1-7 to 0-3) and the impressive Oisin Ó Gríofa pulling the strings at centre-forward.

But the Gaeltacht outfit failed to push home their advantage and St James’ led by six points at the break, 2-11 to 1-8. Two words sum up this remarkable 13-points swing: Eoin Concannon.

Wearing 14, but operating wherever he liked in the James’ attack, Concannon gave an exhibition of football that simply destroyed the Connemara men.

Everything Concannon touched between the 20th and 30th minutes of the opening half resulted in a score: he struck 1-7 – all from play – during that 10 minutes spell, which effectively decided the game in his side’s favour.

No matter who An Cheathrú Rua put marking Concannon – Iarfhlaith Ó Conchubair, Cóilín Ó Domhnaill and Seamus Ó Loidéain all tried their hand at it – the former county star ran rings around them, and made it look almost effortless.

Concannon raised three white flags in three minutes to spark the revival. Then his goal came after midfielder Aaron Connolly dispossessed corner-back Seán Ó Tiarnaigh, who had collected a short kick-out, and brought James’ to within a point of their opponents.

An Cheathrú Rua stopped the rot when Niall Ó Briain split the posts but Concannon wasn’t done yet and the he struck four more points on the spin, including two within 20 seconds of each other in the 25th minute. Concannon was playing puck!

After 29 minutes Jack Ó Gaoithín came on and picked-up Concannon. In fairness, he did a better job than any of the players that had marked him up to that juncture – and kept him relatively quiet after the break, as the substitute stuck to him like Velcro – but by that stage the damage was done.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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