Eager An Cheathru Rua make short work of hapless opponents

An Cheathru Rua 0-13

Bearna  0-7

CIARAN TIERNEY IN INVERIN

NO team can expect to win a senior football championship tie without registering a score from play and Bearna’s limitations in the attacking department were emphatically exposed as An Cheathru Rua cruised into the last 16 with a comfortable six point victory in Inverin on Sunday.

No matter that their team manager Sean Breathnach was out of the country, that three key players were injured, or that they took the foot off the pedal to an almost alarming extent in the final quarter, this was still an easy win for the men in red.

And no wonder. Bearna’s six starting forwards, two midfielders, and two attacking substitutes failed to muster up a point from play between them, as they relied on seven placed balls from Tom Curran for their entire haul. On the basis of this performance, they look to be in real trouble ahead of a showdown with Mountbellew-Moylough in the losers’ round.

By way of contrast, An Cheathru Rua went about their business with admirable conviction, led by the De Paor brothers, Cillin and Ciaran, team captain Padraic O Loideain, Liam MacDonnacha, and impressive new Longford import Sean MacGabhann, who fired over four points from play. How Bearna could have done with his accuracy in front of goal.

An Cheathru Rua had hammered Bearna when the sides met in Comortas Peile na Gaeltachta three weeks previously and looked to be set to repeat the dose when MacGabhann’s fourth point gave them a 0-11 to 0-3 lead nine minutes into the second half.

They eased off after that, however, and Bearna at least tried to make a game of it by bringing D.D. Flaherty off the bench and lobbing a series of high balls into target man Brian Conneely. Flaherty did force a finger-tipped save from An Cheathru Rua goalie Ciaran Mac Donnnacha after 48 minutes – had that gone in, it might have been a far tougher finish for the victors.

But Bearna’s woes were summed up three minutes later when wing back Paddy Naughton received a red card for a second bookable offence from ‘by the book’ Caltra referee Martin Flaherty.

In fairness to Bearna, they were not lacking in commitment in what was a tough, physical tussle – the only problem was that they had no end product as they simply could not score.

The De Paor brothers, meanwhile, conjured up seven points between them, with Cillin putting in a fine hour’s work around midfield and MacGabhann looking a serious edition to their attack.

There was nothing between the sides after ten minutes, with Ciaran de Paor (free) and Mac Gabhann responding to two Curran frees, and little indication that Bearna would struggle so badly in attack as John Clifford, Rory Donnellan, and Naughton got stuck in around the middle third.

But, gradually, An Cheathru Rua took control. Liam Mac Donncha set up a good point for Cillin de Paor on the run, Ciaran de Paor pointed from a free following a foul on his brother and then found the target again after Richie Carroll hauled Ian Seoighe to the ground.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.