Tuam Stars late blitz does the trick

Tuam Stars                          1-11
Cortoon Shamrocks        0-7

A moment of inspiration from Gavan Connell swung a tightly fought North Galway derby in Tuam Stars’ favour on Sunday evening last, as Cortoon Shamrocks’ quest for Galway senior football championship honours disintegrated following a flurry of scores that began with Jamie Murphy’s 48th minute goal.

The tonic score owed everything to Connell’s ingenuity, though, and could easily have been his score had Murphy not palmed the ball to the net from almost on the goal line. Connell had been the architect, gliding past a couple of challenges before appearing to shape to take a simple point from close range as ‘keeper Darragh Glynn advanced slightly.

Connell, though, had other ideas and deftly dinked a shot over Glynn’s head that appeared goalbound before Murphy intervened. Tuam now held their biggest lead of the contest, at 1-8 to 0-7, and with Cortoon reeling, Murphy and John Ross Bodkin (free) quickly added points to leave the post-match favourites on the brink.

With county star Paul Varley already departed having received an early black card and Derek Savage curtailed, Cortoon simply ran out of ideas in the last ten minutes and posed no threat to Alan Flynn’s side goal. Guided throughout by the steady hand of Gary O’Donnell at midfield, Tuam were worthy winners on a day of redemption after their previous collapse to Corofin.

In the early stages, though, it looked as if they were once more suffering from stage fright as Cortoon raced into a three point lead in the opening ten minutes. John Ross Bodkin’s return to the side appeared to offer more genuine attacking options to the Stars, but he was wide with an early free while O’Donnell also dropped a shot short. Bodkin, though, proved to be a vital cog for Tuam in the final reckoning.

By contrast, Cortoon began in determined fashion and had their first point on the board within a minute as Joe Donnellan won a free that midfielder David Warde converted with ease. Cathal Mulryan then strode forward from the back to assist Donnellan for Cortoon’s second, and the side that had edged out Kilkerrin/Clonberne in round two were off to a flyer.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.