Tempers flare as depleted Salthill hold off Milltown

Date Published: 07-Jul-2009

THERE was drama, action, and suspense aplenty at Tuam Stadium on Sunday evening as Salthill-Knocknacarra narrowly advanced to the Claregalway Hotel senior football championship quarter-finals at the expense of Milltown, thanks to points in the closing minutes from Seamus Crowe and Sean Armstrong.
The knockout blows were landed as the rain poured down and the breathless crowd sensed, while perched on the edge of their seats, that extra time would be needed to divide the two teams. Unfortunately, these were not the only blows that will be recalled from this contest, as FIVE red cards saw the winners come through a 13 v 12 scenario over the closing 18 minutes.
Ugly scenes at the end of an evenly contested first half saw 26 players eventually involved in a mass brawl. Gerry Kinneavy brandished straight reds to Salthill-Knocknacarra’s John Boylan and Declan Burke, with Milltown’s Shane Waldron also departing.
The extra man was quickly cancelled out by Ciaran Murphy’s second yellow moments later and it was his departure that Milltown most keenly felt in the second half when pushing for the lead score after Salthill’s Tomás Burke was sent off for an off the ball incident.
Milltown could never get their noses in front, though, due in part to some heroic defending from Finian Hanley, but they will also rue not committing more men to attack when the game was in the balance.
Instead, it was the Armstrong- Crowe double act which proved decisive for Jimmy Heverin’s side as Crowe, after Hanley had bravely blocked down Damien Brennan’s attempt for glory moments earlier, grabbed his fourth point from play in the last minute before Armstrong tapped over a close-in free to seal the deal.
Crowe, at times the only Salthill-Knocknacarra forward near the end as positions became largely irrelevant, overcame double-marking to fire over three special points in the second half. All four of his
scores from play came directly from accurate kick passes by Armstrong, who roamed the half-forward and midfield sector to pick up a bounty of possession.