Extra time agony for Galway boys in thrilling battle

Date Published: 04-Jul-2012

Roscommon 1-11

Galway 1-9

(AET, 1-8 each after 60 mins)

CIARAN TIERNEY AT TUAM STADIUM

IT is surely a shortcoming of the current structure of the minor football championship that Roscommon are now guaranteed at least two more games while Galway’s season came to a heartbreaking end after this full-blooded, tense, and thrilling Connacht semi-final at Tuam Stadium on Saturday evening.

The young Tribesmen will hardly dispute that Roscommon deserve to be still in the title race but, with two minutes to go of a pulsating tie, the home side looked to be on course for a surprise victory over one of the favourites for this year’s All-Ireland.

Backed by a clear majority in the 4,000 strong crowd, the visitors had been tough – sometimes over-physical – all evening and looked to be on course for victory until Galway corner forward Eoin McCormack scored a brilliant goal six minutes from the end of normal time to give his side a scarcely deserved lead.

When raiding wing forward Liam Silke added the next point just seconds later, Galway were leading by 1-8 to 1-6 against a side who had wasted two clear goal chances, hit ten wides, and were shocked to find themselves two points down.

But Roscommon rallied, and midfielder Thomas Corcoran converted two late pressure frees to bring the tie to extra time. His side showed clear superiority in the additional 20 minutes, outscoring Tommy Joyce’s men 0-3 to 0-1, and corner forward Diarmuid Murtagh almost managed a late goal only for a superb point-blank save from Galway goalie Rory Lavelle.

Roscommon clearly showed the benefit of their 4-15 to 2-3 hammering of Leitrim in the quarter-final clash the previous weekend, while Galway were left to rue what might have been as their 2012 campaign ended almost as soon as it began. Had they been given another chance, they could have learned a lot from this tough tie.

The first half was extremely tense and free-ridden, with inconsistent Leitrim referee Frankie Flynn making a series of dubious calls against both sides which hardly helped the flow of the game. It was extremely physical fare for a minor tie, as Michael Gunning and Murtagh (a free) landed the first two points for the visitors.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.