Moycullen do the damage in opening half

MOYCULLEN 1-11

ATHENRY 1-7

AFTER the first half of this county intermediate football semi-final at Tuam Stadium on Sunday, Moycullen looked a very safe bet not only for victory but for the county title as well before a spirited Athenry fightback threatened to change the script.

In the end, Moycullen did run out deserving winners by a four point margin and if their touch in front of goal had been a measure more composed, then they wouldn’t have had to lose as much sweat in the final 10 minutes.

Moycullen’s first half display was probably as good as anyone has seen in the intermediate championship this year – strong in defence, commanding around the midfield sector and extremely lively in attack.

The winners were full value for their 1-7 to 0-3 interval lead with corner forward Conor Bohan landing their goal in the 26th minute after a great run out of defence by Diarmuid Lee.

Earlier in the half, Bohan had twice been denied goal strikes by the brilliance of Athenry goalkeeper Thomas Dolan while the Moycullen corner forward could quite easily have added three further goals late into the game.

One of the key differences between the sides was in attack with Moycullen far more purposeful on the ball while their threats came from a lot of different sources – by contrast, Athenry depended almost exclusively on the striking ability of corner forward Cathal Fahy.

Aided by the stiff first half breeze into the town goal, Greg Bohan, Kevin O’Donovan, Tomás Higgins, Philip Lydon (3) and Gareth Bradshaw raised the white flags for Moycullen with three Cathal Fahy points giving some hope to Athenry.

Thomas Flynn though was rallying Athenry from the midfield sector early in the second half although something is surely wrong with the fixtures balance in the county when this talented dual player was asked to play championship football less than 18 hours after playing senior hurling with his club against Portumna . . . just not fair!

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.