Remarkable comeback earns dramatic one point victory for Gallen CS

Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior “D” Final

Gallen CS (Offaly) 0-9

Scoil Mhuire Buncrana 1-5

IT was a weekend of heartbreak and disappointment for Offaly schools the weekend before last in All-Ireland competition, and when Gallen Community School failed to get out of the blocks in last Saturday’s All-Ireland senior “D” football decider against Scoil Mhuire of Buncrana, it looked like another story of disappointment was on the cards.

Instead the West Offaly school delivered the most unlikely and remarkable of comebacks to gradually and painstakingly work their way back into the game, eventually clinching All-Ireland glory through a Senan Hanniffy free in the 60^th minute, the score that gave them their first and only lead of the game.

This was a group that reached the final by playing fast, attacking football throughout, so the facts of their comeback were only as remarkable as the manner of it. To describe their play in this game as ‘defensive’ would be misleading. To say that they won this game by virtue of outstanding defending, in every sector of the pitch, would be much more accurate.

For the first half, Scoil Mhuire had complete control of the game. Accuracy was something of an issue for the Inishowen students in the first 25 minutes, but such was their control and dominance in the middle third, that it looked like they weren’t going to pay a price for it. Conor Graham, Aaron Cleary, Shaunie Bradley and Seán McLaughlin were all in tremendous form in the middle third of the pitch, controlling the play and working the ball cleverly from side to side, patiently engineering good scoring chances.

Five minutes had passed before they opened the scoring, McLaughlin firing over a '45' after Billy Duffy’s shot on the turn had taken a slight touch before falling wide to the right, but once that breakthrough was made, Scoil Mhuire clearly relaxed into the game and both Duffy and McLaughlin followed up with excellent points from play.

Structurally, the Ulster champions were in control in all facets of play at this stage. They tackled Gallen high up the pitch and forced turnovers, they were superb at midfield and exerted a huge amount of pressure on the Offaly side’s restarts, and on the rare occasions when they did have to defend their own goal, Leo Kelly and Daniel McMenamin were strong in their man-to-man battles, while Elliot Friel and Oisín McIntyre hoovered up a lot of breaking ball and acted as superb platforms from which to build attacks.

With 12 minutes gone, Scoil Mhuire received another huge boost when a slick layoff from Jamie McCauley into the path of Shaunie Bradley left the Burt man through on goal, and while Gallen midfielder Michael Spillane did brilliantly to force a spill with a crisp tackle, the ball rolled loose and fell perfectly for Bradley to slip a low soccer-style shot under the Gallen keeper.

At that stage, a comeback looked impossible, as Gallen were taking on water everywhere. A long-range free from Senan Hanniffy got them off the mark but poor misses from Eoghan Grennan and Brian Carroll cost them dearly.

The second quarter was the time for Scoil Mhuire to push on and press home their advantage, but it didn’t happen. There were no sitters, but a string of chances were pushed wide and right of the goals at the southern end of the ground, and when Jake Maher and Carroll hit the target at the end of the first half, the latter firing over from a decent goal chance, suddenly the gap was down to three points at the interval.

That momentum continued when Gallen started the second half with a Senan Hanniffy free, but they too failed to push on when they were on top, while an incredible intervention from Oisín McIntyre denied Colm Egan what looked like a certain goal.

What had changed completely was the way Gallen were attacking the game, hunting possession and putting real pressure on the opposition. Colm Egan and Luke Kelly came into this game on the back of a string of high scoring displays, but here they took the initiative in a different way, putting the squeeze on Scoil Mhuire at the top end of the pitch.

After 12 scoreless minutes, it looked like consecutive scores from Dónal Óg O’Brien and Elliot Friel had seen Scoil Mhuire through the storm. Not so, as for the final quarter, Gallen showed patience, resolve, and no shortage of energy in their forward line. With pressure on every possession now, nervousness crept into the Donegal school. Handpass after handpass missed the target, and point by point, Gallen worked their way back into the game, eventually drawing level through Lee Moore.

With stoppage time looming, the game swung on a series of frees; one missed, one scored, one not given. There was one long-range effort from McLaughlin that crept inches wide, then Gallen’s first ever lead, coming in the 60^th minute from Hanniffy after Conor Graham was very harshly adjudged to have handled the ball on the ground.

That was balanced up when Scoil Mhuire full-back Leo Kelly appeared to push Moore in the back for what would have been either a 20m free or a penalty, depending on the spot. Instead play was waved on, so Scoil Mhuire had two minutes to try and create something to extend the contest.

They couldn’t find it, as by now, a Gallen team that had earned their spot in this final on the back of their prolific attacking nature, had turned into ravenous, ball-hungry foragers. It felt appropriate then that instead of clinching this famous win through late scores, they instead picked off two turnovers to complete this incredible turnaround.

MATCH ANALYSIS

Teams

GALLEN CS: Eoin Coughlan; Brandon Delaney, Darragh Mannion, Jake Maher; Eamon Maher, Luke Fitzgerald, James Wren; Conor Grennan, Michael Spillane; Brian Carroll, Senan Hanniffy, Luke Kelly; Eoghan Grennan, Lee Moore, Colm Egan. Subs: Gavin Egan (for Spillane, 39 mins), Rúairí Woods (for C. Egan, 46 mins), David Heffernan (for Delaney, 51 mins), Rory Dunican (for Moore, 60 mins), Daniel Kelly (for L. Kelly, 63 mins).

SCOIL MHUIRE BUNCRANA: Stephen McNulty; Daniel McMenamin, Leo Kelly, Elliot Friel; Fionn O’Riordan, Andrew Davidson, Conor Graham; Aaron Cleary, Dónal Óg O’Brien; Shaunie Bradley, Sean McLaughlin, Billy Duffy; Dylan Mulholland, Jamie McCauley, Oisín McIntyre. Subs: Jay Bradley (for McCauley, 51 mins), Cillian McEleney (for O’Riordan, 51 mins).

REFEREE: John Glavey (Mayo)

MAN OF THE MATCH

If Scoil Mhuire had held on to win, it’s likely that either Elliot Friel or Oisín McIntyre would have got the shout, but the verdict went to Luke Kelly for the outstanding effort that the Doon player made in dragging his team back into the game in the second half. His club colleagues Luke Fitzgerald and Senan Hanniffy also had big games, while Brian Carroll, Conor Grennan and Gavin Egan (off the bench) also made a big impact, but for his ability to beat a defender and create a score out of nothing, Kelly gets the shout.

REFEREE WATCH

There were no egregious calls from John Glavey that swung the game one way or another, but the Mayo official couldn’t be described as having had a good game either. The early yellow cards that he showed to the two team captains were incredibly cheap and harsh, and they both greatly restricted the players involved, while he certainly allowed more loose tackling go than the average referee. The free award that ultimately decided the game also looked wrong, though this was balanced out by a blatant push on Lee Moore that went unpunished on the next attack.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

When it happened, Oisín McIntyre’s incredible athletic feat to deny Colm Egan what looked like a certain goal seemed to be the turning of the game, but we’ll go instead with the outstanding work by Luke Kelly to keep the play alive in the lead up to Lee Moore’s equalising point.

Kelly made a good run forward when Rúairí Woods was in possession, and at that stage, he was the main threat, so two Scoil Mhuire players were on his shoulder. Woods chose the wrong option in passing to him anyway, and by the time Kelly gathered, he had three defenders smothering him. Somehow he kept possession, found a way to get the ball to Brian Carroll, and two passes later, Egan was splitting the posts.

VENUE WATCH

Gallen came into this game on the back of four consecutive contests on astroturf. This was very different, but it was still an excellent, solid surface – far better than one might expect at this time of year.

STATISTICS

Wides: Gallen CS – 5 (2 in first half); Scoil Mhuire – 8 (5 in first half).

Yellow cards: Gallen – 1 (C. Grennan); Scoil Mhuire – 2 (McLaughlin, O’Brien).

Black cards: 0

Red cards: 0

Scorers

Gallen CS: Senan Hanniffy (0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 '45'), Luke Kelly (0-2), Jake Maher (0-1), Brian Carroll (0-1), Lee Moore (0-1).

Ashbourne: Shaunie Bradley (1-0), Sean McLaughlin (0-2, 0-1 '45'), Billy Duffy (0-1), Dónal Og O’Brien (0-1), Elliot Friel (0-1).