Corofin survive minor scare against exiles in a mudbath

COROFIN 0-9

TIR CHONAILL GAELS 0-2

A SOMEWHAT strange and sticky affair on the edge of London town as Corofin eventually delivered the result that everyone expected in this All-Ireland club quarter-final, but not before their travelling band of supporters had endured a few early pangs of anxiety.

With half-time approaching, and the teams deadlocked at 0-1 apiece, the almost unimaginable scenario of a shock home victory was at least a thought in the back of some minds, but after that, Corofin steadied the ship and won quite convincingly in the end.

It was heavy going at Ruislip in every sense of the word on Sunday with the pitch, at best, sticky and at worst a downright mudbath, conditions that prevented the game from ever developing any sense of fluency.

Luckily, the second Sunday of December was sunny and crisp, but if the match had to be played through a downpour, then it would be an achievement in itself to have got through an hour’s football.

Tir Chonaill Gaels — quite a physically strong, competitive and well organised side — set out their stall in no uncertain terms from the start, with two sweepers planked in the middle of their defence, in a bid to curtail Corofin’s free-flowing style.

There could no faulting the strategy of Gaels’ manager, Barney Breen in trying to stymie the Corofin attacking machine after the huge scores that the Galway champions had clocked up through the season so far — when the home side went in at half-time trailing by 0-2 to 0-1, the plan seemed to have worked.

However the determination and organisation of the Gaels first half defensive plan only tells part of the story of the first period as their tenacious rearguard action still didn’t prevent the Galway champions from creating a whole series of point and goal chances. If Corofin had converted even half of their early clear-cut chances, then the match would have been a done deal at the interval.

Gary Sice missed the target from a couple of scoreable frees; Ian Burke also skewed wide three efforts from play, while Sice and Michael Farragher had goal chances that they would put away on one of their ‘normal days’.

For the Tir Chonaill master plan to work, they would need to have delivered big scores at the other end but during that first half they only threatened the Corofin posts on a couple of occasions.

Their only score of the half came in the 22nd minute when corner forward Cathal McGee pointed after good work by Joe Feeney, but his well struck effort went just inches over the Corofin bar. A goal at that stage would have struck a huge psychological blow for the exiles.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.