O’Neills Derry SFC semi-final: Glen 1-9 Slaughtneil 0-9
AS the natural end of Malachy O’Rourke’s time with Glen draws near, there could have been few days as satisfying as this one.
There comes a day in such a cycle where you almost no longer see a manager’s fingerprints on a performance.
The tactical stuff becomes automatic, almost secondary as the players take complete ownership.
Glen’s second half display felt exactly like that.
The individual performances of Ethan Doherty and, in that key spell in the third quarter particularly, Michael Warnock were the very definition of leadership, as distinctive as they were instinctive.
Every time they needed anything, Doherty would just go and get the ball and run it. Whether it was struggling to get out on their own kickout to needing a free for someone else to score, he just went and made it happen.
Chrissy McKaigue did his manful best but Doherty has exploded as a footballer in the last 18 months. The close control of possession, the power, the pace, the decision making and even an added scoring threat this autumn, it is a frightening combination.
Warnock was huge too. He won the kickout for a Tiarnan Flanagan goal chance that was saved, then saw a gap and went through it to kick them 0-7 to 0-5 ahead.
Next he won a free that Emmett Bradley hooked wide. Finally, with three men chasing him towards his own goal, completely isolated with nothing on but a crossfield ball on his weaker left foot, that’s what he did. Conleth McGuckian kicked the score that crushed Slaughtneil’s spirit just that wee bit more.
In between Warnock’s own score and his assist for McGuckian, there was the unusual sight of Shane McGuigan dropping a 21-metre free short. He couldn’t believe it, looking down at the studs that miskicked it. Slaughtneil needed that score.
But they were being overwhelmed in every area by then.
They were doing until Slaughtneil as had been done unto them in the first half.
The Emmet’s had cut off Samson’s hair in the first half, taking the scissors to Glen’s bunch-n-break short kickouts that have been the source of their powers for four years.
They hemmed the holders in and at 0-5 to 0-2, the doomsday predictions that the All-Ireland champions had been hearing for the last fortnight looked to be manifesting themselves.
The strength of the breeze was significant and widely underestimated among the 4,000-odd paying spectators who got more of a football match than last year, albeit still well short of a classic.
Conor Convery’s fine kick just before the interval – his last act before being replaced – settled Glen a bit, brought it back to two points.
His replacement, Johnny McGuckian, was as effective as he had been coming in against Lavey, driving straight into things, drawing a free, forcing an instant reshuffle of the Slaughtneil match-ups.
And that coincided with his brother Conleth becoming ever more prominent.
There was a similar feel to the second half of last year’s final, the half that everyone said was the only good half of football they really played in Derry last year. This was the first good half and when it was good, it was good without Ciaran McFaul, Jack Doherty and the latter’s brother Alex. The first two were injured and the third has stepped away.
Glen went from 0-5 to 0-2 down to 0-9 to 0-5 up. With Conor Glass really coming into it and Ryan Dougan containing McGuigan, they hit seven on the bounce, a run finally broken by Padraig Cassidy’s 53rd minute score, their first in a full 32 minutes of play.
Cassidy had another good game, Fionn McEldowney’s credentials were further enhanced and the redeployment of captain Sammy Bradley to wing-back had mixed results, two fine points but a lot of his possession so far from goal as to limit his impact.
They hit three straight themselves, two of them from Cassidy, although hindsight might tell him the goal chance he opted to neglect for the fisted point wouldn’t return itself later. That did make it 0-9 to 0-8 after 59 minutes.
And then when they went full squeeze to try and win the kickout and level it, Ethan Doherty demanded the ball off his goalkeeper, carried it 50 metres down the line. Glen lost it initially later in the move but won it back and with Jack Cassidy out of goal, Jody McDermott had the run on Eamon Cassidy on the Slaughtneil goal-line to fist home, a goal not dissimilar to his brother Danny’s that had settled the fixture last year.
Still, Slaughtneil kept coming. Glen weren’t about to let a soft goal in and their unashamed attempts to protect it led to a few skirmishes, county team-mates hopping off each other, and Padraig Cassidy getting the line in the game’s final act.
Sé McGuigan had just flashed awkwardly over to cut the gap to three but the light went out on their challenge, extinguished by Glen for the fourth year running.
Newbridge have a serious task on their hands to prevent the trophy staying in Maghera.
MATCH STATS
Glen: C Bradley; M Warnock (0-1), J McDermott (1-0); T Flanagan, R Dougan, C Carville, D McDermott; E Bradley (0-1), C Glass (0-2, 0-1 45); C Convery (0-1), C McGuckian (0-1), C Mulholland; J McGuckian, D Tallon (0-3, 0-2 frees), E Doherty
Subs: J McGuckian for Convery (HT)
Slaughtneil: J Cassidy; Chrissy McKaigue, K McKaigue, E Cassidy; F McEldowney, P McNeill, C Bradley (0-2); B Rogers (0-1), J McGuigan (0-1); Cahal McKaigue, M McGrath, S McGuigan (0-2, 0-1 free), P Cassidy (0-2); R Ó Mainain, C O’Doherty
Subs: Shea Cassidy for Cahal McKaigue (40), Patsy Bradley for McGrath (49), Sé McGuigan (0-1) for O’Doherty (49), K Feeney for McNeill (52)
Referee: B Cassidy (Bellaghy)