Kelly stands out as Moycullen scrape into knock-out stages

Moycullen 0-8

Monivea/Abbey 0-8

Pádraic Ó Ciardha at Pearse Stadium

MOYCULLEN just about secured a place in the the quarter-finals of this year’s senior football championship thanks to a hard-fought draw against Monivea/Abbey last Sunday. In a contest low on scores and overall quality, Seán Kelly proved to be the decisive figure in the game as he dragged Moycullen through.

It was a superb performance from the Galway player, not only from a scoring point of view, Kelly finished with five points from play, but in terms of his general contribution, popping up again and again at crucial stages. Had it not been for him, it’s unlikely that Moycullen would be preparing for a quarter-final against Mountbellew/Moylough, as they are now.

With the majority of their other big name players failing to fire, Peter Cooke and Gareth Bradshaw both missed penalties, Moycullen can at least point to the handful of goal chances they created and, on another day, they might have won comfortably. Monivea/Abbey will have to look back at the game as a huge opportunity lost, however.

In what was a make or break contest for both sides, it was remarkable that neither ever really got going. The game saw only three scores in the opening 20 minutes with all three going the way of Monivea/Abbey.

It took until the ninth minute for Barry Moran to open the scoring for Brian Mulry’s side but they did manage to add a second score almost instantly when Shane King split the posts from 25m.

Denis Farragher was in for a busy enough day in the Monivea/Abbey goal and the captain was first called into action in the 10th minute when he did well to deny Seán Kelly from close-range, although the forward’s effort was down the middle.

Craig Kennedy put his side 0-3 to 0-0 ahead midway through the half before Farragher was called into action again, this time to save a penalty. Seán Kelly was brought down by Coleman Maher in the large rectangle and while Peter Cooke stepped up to take the kick, he saw his low effort saved by Farragher.

Moycullen did at last open their account in the 22nd minute when Cooke drove over a ‘45 but Monivea/Abbey responded with a score of their own from Brian Moran.

Moycullen were beginning to a make ground through the middle by this point, however, and Seán Kelly found himself on the end of a good move to kick over after Mark Lydon had initially won a mark in centrefield.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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