Morgan Fuels Down SFC semi-final: Burren 1-10 Carryduff 1-7
YOU can look at Ronan Kelly’s goal three ways.
In setting up a third Burren-Kilcoo final in four years, a second in succession, it was clear that Kelly was in the square before he deflected Ronan McGrath’s shot into the net.
It was so obvious that it was hard to comprehend how the umpires, from three yards away, went straight to the flag.
Referee Ciaran Branagan was understandably 50 yards from the play and took their lead.
He was so far back because when Burren turned the ball over 30 metres from their own goal, they saw the space and they went hard into it.
They made Carryduff pay for bad turnovers twice in the final quarter and that was ultimately the difference.
So you can look at the decision, or you can credit Burren for the ruthlessness with which they picked off what were barely even chances when the counter-attacks began.
Equally, and this was Carryduff manager Finnian Moriarty’s gut instinct, you can look at how Carryduff continually walked into the beartrap down the middle of the Burren goal and got spat out.
That was, by his own reckoning, the eighth time in the second half that they’d been turned over in and around the St Mary’s ‘D’.
“It’s a big moment but to be honest, I don’t know whether the ball was going into the net or not.
“Yes, it’s a square ball, but these things go against ye. It was our own fault, we gave the ball away, we dived in and they got the jump on us. That’s football.
“We’d be disappointed, we gave the ball away eight times I think in the second half from their D in when we were trying to work a score. Credit to their defending but that’s our skill level let us down and we have to live with that,” said the former Armagh defender.
Yet it had felt like a game destined for extra-time until Kelly’s right boot interjected with an Ole Solskjaer-type redirection on McGrath’s flashing shot.
Was it a Burren performance that will scare Kilcoo? Only in very sporadic flashes.
We know they have bags of pace.
At one stage early in the second half, Danny Magill made a brilliant block from an Eoin Donnelly shot. The ball spun 30 yards up field and like lightning, Magill went after it, flicking it up on the run.
Thirty seconds later his cousin Ryan was rewarding the endeavour with one of two superb left-footed scores.
He did likewise later in the game when Liam Kerr took advantage of an Odhran Sherry slip to eat up the grass, surging 50 yards at full tilt. That created the gap and Magill was there on the shoulder, firing over a great score.
Magill and Kerr both had moments where they got to open the legs, and although they both scored, the real top-drawer end product wasn’t always quite there from either on the night.
Josh Connery spent the night in Odhran Murdock’s personal space.
It is something he has to find a way to get used to very quickly. He didn’t do enough to shake Connery and you can be sure the watching Kilcoo contingent will have noted how effective a job it was on Burren’s star man.
Their star of times past, Donal O’Hare, has become the latest makeshift goalkeeper.
Carryduff targeted it early on and after O’Hare had done well to punch one clear early on, he let one slither through his legs to give up a 12th minute goal to James Guinness’s 40-yard effort.
Guinness, who had a great first half and a decent second, turned to the sideline and pointed to the side of his head, suggesting they’d put a bit of thought into trying to unsettle Burren in the air.
They had the half’s two outstanding players in Guinness and John McGeough, yet still went in behind.
Daniel Guinness did a good job on Kerr and Michael McGrath was sticky with Danny Magill but perhaps, particularly with Guinness, Carryduff didn’t quite justify the robbing of Peter with their payment to Paul.
Burren just kept the scoreboard ticking with that little bit more ease. Ronan McGrath was excellent, while Patrick McCarthy took advantage of the space and time he got all night to constantly link the play up their right wing.
Donal O’Hare recovered from the goal to chip a handful of lovely long-range frees that helped Burren lead by 0-7 to 1-3 at the break, with Carryduff having had a point chalked off as well. It had been given by the umpires but the call was overturned by the referee, possibly with help from his linesman on the far wing.
Having lost in each of their last five meetings with Carryduff, Eoin McCartan and Stephen O’Hare’s team always felt the battle was coming.
It took them right until the 58th minute goal to squeeze their way out of it and into another decider with the all-conquering Magpies, who put them to the sword in a blunt manner last year.
“I think we’ve improved. We’ve a full clean bill of health, that’s the main thing. We’ve improved our transitions and not making as many turnovers. We’ve improved across the board, I hope,” said Stephen O’Hare, who kept his answers brief as Burren headed back to the bus bound for another date with their nemesis.
MATCH STATS
Burren: D O’Hare (0-3, 0-2f, 0-1 45); P McCarthy, C McGovern (0-1), G McGovern; P Burns, R Magill (0-2), P Fegan, M McAvoy; A Cole, O Murdock; D McEntee, L Kerr (0-2f), R McGrath; D Magill (0-1), N Toner (0-1f)
Subs: R Treanor for Toner (39), K McKernan for C McGovern (49), C Toner for Cole (49), R Kelly (1-0) for D McEntee (56), D Murdock for Magill (62)
Carryduff: M Hynes; L Toal, M McGrath; O Sherry, P McCabe, D Guinness, J Connery; E Donnelly, J McGeough (0-3, 0-2f); J Tunney, J Guinness (1-2), T McCarroll; O McCabe, C Clinton, R Beatty (0-1)
Subs: G Henderson for E Donnelly (blood, 12-16), S McGonigle for L Toal (HT), J McFlynn (0-1f) for Clinton (44), G Henderson for O McCabe (49)
Referee: C Branagan (Downpatrick)