Heverin goal settles it for improving Cortoon Shamrocks

Cortoon Shamrocks 1-9 Kilconly 0-8

CORTOON Shamrocks became the eighth team to qualify for the Galway senior club football championship quarter-finals after dismissing the challenge of Kilconly at Tuam Stadium on Sunday evening.

The winners looked a bit out of sorts early-on as Kilconly threw everything at them in the opening half, in particular, but they soon got to grips with the game and began to convert their midfield dominance into scores.

Cortoon’s star man, Shane Gilmore, who was home from Canada for the game, won a mountain of possession at centre-field – wing-back Matthew Concannon won a heap of breaking ball, too – and while the favourites failed to utilise it in the opening half, and were wasteful with their passing into the forwards, their distribution improved as the game progressed.

Cortoon’s conversion rate, however, was not what it ought to be – the winners kicked 14 wides, including ten in the second-half. Much room for improvement, so, but it’s hard to believe that this team only managed to register 1-2 against Tuam Stars in the first round, and the goal came from a penalty.

Indeed, Cortoon have now built up a head of steam – this was their fourth championship outing this year and that will surely stand to them in the remainder of their campaign.

Kilconly caused all sorts of trouble in the first half, with Michael Murphy making a general nuisance of himself, causing havoc for the Cortoon defence, but once county player Donal O’Neill was switched to man-mark him at the start of the second-half, they ran out of ideas.

Kilconly’s mean rearguard, led by Kevin Brady in a solid half-back line, was a feature of the first-half as Cortoon struggled to find space to manoeuvre, but the captain’s dismissal on the stroke of full-time for two striking actions summed up a frustrating second 30 minutes for the losers. An extended match report will appear in this week’s Connacht Tribune.