Milltown men massacred in forgettable semi-final

Corofin 4-14

Milltown 0-2

THIS will be remembered as the ‘Milltown Massacre’.

Crafty, classy Corofin inflicted a humiliating hammering on a mortifying Milltown outfit in one of the most lopsided Galway senior football championship semi-finals ever at Tuam Stadium on Sunday.

It really was embarrassing. Even the Corofin contingent in the crowd was wincing at how easy it was. Like watching a scary horror movie, Milltown fans and neutrals covered their eyes with their hands, and some longed for a couch to duck behind, as Corofin romped to a record 24-points victory that was every bit as gruesome as the scoreline suggests.

Milltown received as many red cards – two – as they did scores, which aptly sums up the day for them. And, to be brutally honest, they were fortunate not to have received at least one more of the former, as sour grapes led to ill-discipline, which in turn led to a couple of unsavoury off the ball incidents that went unpunished. Corofin responded to Milltown ‘loosing the cool’ in the best possible manner – they continued to ‘beat them up’ on the scoreboard.

It’s hard to analyse how it came to this. Milltown, touted as perhaps the second best team in the county, and in with a squeak of causing an upset, were simply annihilated.

Apart from lion-hearted Darren Mullahy, who had to try and beat Corofin on his own, Milltown were flat-footed from the get-go. They were so out of sorts, it was like they’d all suffered a bout of food poisoning from their pre-match breakfast.

It was such a spectacular no-show that even the Milltown players and management couldn’t explain it away: Best chalk it down as a complete freak of a performance and result and hope that it hasn’t left any long-term psychological scarring. Hopefully, they’ll bounce back.

As for Corofin, well, they won’t be entirely happy either as they didn’t receive the stern examination of their credentials that they expected.

Still, manager Stephen Rochford will be pleased with how they clinically and ruthlessly beat what was put in front of them to reach another county final, their seventh since 2008.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.