Team captain î Curraoin never lost hope in Hyde Park

Date Published: 11-Apr-2013

CAPTAIN fantastic Fintán Ó Curraoin, who steered the Galway U21 footballers to victory over Roscommon at Hyde Park on Saturday, says this team has a ‘gritty’ character and will fear nothing in the All-Ireland series.

The Micheál Breathnach clubman, who led by example and gave an exhibition of high-fielding in the pulsating Connacht final, hinted that the hurt of losing an All-Ireland semi-final in 2010 at the minor grade, would motivate the Galway squad as they set their sights on toppling Kildare, the Leinster champions, in the U21 final on Saturday week, April 20.

The midfielder was due to travel north with the Galway seniors on Sunday to play Armagh in the National Football League – they could have done with his aerial prowess by all accounts – but Alan Mulholland, senior manager, and advisor to the U21 management, immediately after the match told him he deserved the night off.

“I can’t believe it, I’m still in shock here now . . . I was just talking to Alan (Mulholland) there and he’s given me the night off, so I’m going to go and enjoy it with the lads now,” he told Tribune Sport after his acceptance speech as Gaeilge following the 1-17 to 2-11 triumph after extra-time.

Ó Curraoin admitted Galway teetered on the brink of disaster, particularly in the second half when they went scoreless for over 20 minutes, and Roscommon wasted chance after chance. He never lost hope, however, and knew the resolute character of this group would come to the fore.

When corner-forward Shane Walsh nailed three late scores to tie the game, Ó Curraoin didn’t want the final whistle to blow – he felt Roscommon were on the run and Galway could have clinched it in normal time. Ó Curraoin never doubted their ability to seal it in extra-time, either.

“We went three or four points down and it didn’t look good . . . we seemed to be finding it hard to get the ball (in the second half) and then when we got it we were dropping it, and making silly passes. Thankfully we knew there was a good bit of grit in the team – we saw that against Mayo, in the semi-final, and against Sligo. In the end it was that grit that pulled us through.

“We probably were lucky; and Roscommon can probably feel a bit unlucky but that’s the way it goes. We were disappointed the ref had blown the whistle at full-time because we had the momentum. We knew that if we got a good start again in extra-time that we’d drive on and that’s what happened. In fairness to Roscommon they came back in the second period of extra-time and got a score early on but we pushed on again thankfully,” he said.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.