AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship Final: An Cheathru Rua (Galway) 0-9 Naomh Padraig, Uisce Chaoin (Donegal) 0-8
Pride but a little regret too, and no small amount of disillusion. Manager Daniel McCauley dealt with mixed emotions after Naomh Padraig’s near miss at Croke Park on Saturday.
Fionan Ó Conchaile’s point six minutes into stoppage time ultimately separated the sides and sent the All-Ireland club JFC title to Connemara in west Galway with An Cheathru Rua.
A senior side as recently as 2022, the former Galway senior champions would have kicked themselves if they hadn’t won it considering all the wides they struck, a whopping 16 in total.
Naomh Padraig lamented their own shortcomings too, particularly around kick-outs, while a goal that they couldn’t take early in the second half was a significant turning point too.
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They were turning the screw at that stage and county men Caolan McColgan, shortly to return to the Donegal senior panel, and the excellent Kevin Lynch, a Donegal U-20, kicked two quality points in this period.
But their lead was brief and they ended up wincing as O Conghaile stroked over the winning score off his left foot in the 66th minute. Both umpires looked at each other briefly at the Davin End before agreeing it was a point.
Seconds later, when Naomh Padraig were on the attack at the other end and captain Dermot Keaveney appeared to be fouled, the officials weren’t forthcoming this time, referee Jonathan Hayes surprisingly waving playing on. Which is where the disillusion kicked in.
“I think it was definitely a foul,” said McCauley.
“The free they got a few minutes before to tie up the game, it was the exact same foul. I think it was a free, maybe the pressure of the triple header and not wanting to go to extra-time, I don’t know.”
McCauley was still mightily proud of his players. McColgan showed all of his class in the second half in particular, curling over a beauty from a tight angle on the right in the 61st minute and punching the air in delight. It looked like the score that would at least take the game to extra-time until Ó Conchaile intervened.
“We were probably beaten by the better team on the day,” acknowledged McCauley.
“We couldn’t get to grips with the game, couldn’t get that element of control. We did get a purple patch for a while in the first half but we struggled on our kick-outs, our movement probably wasn’t good enough and one thing or another.
“That was probably our downfall, just too many mistakes that probably killed us in the end.”
Despite all those chances that An Cheathru Rua created, MacCauley was happy with how his team performed defensively.
“The amount of pressure we put on them, a lot of the time they had nowhere to go, no options, and we’d worked on that,” he said.
“They like to kick the ball in and we stifled all of that. So that end of the game we were very, very happy with. When we attacked them we did look more dangerous than them.
“I think if we had got a goal at that time (early in the second half) they mightn’t have got it back.”
Naomh Padraig were inspired throughout their run by the memory of their former colleague Evan Craig who passed away last September.
They hinted at great gains on the biggest stage too when they capitalised on An Cheathru Rua’s poor finishing to take a 0-5 to 0-3 lead after 20 minutes. In a low-scoring game, it was a significant lead.
They hit the interval one ahead and the spark the game needed suddenly arrived in the seconds after the restart when An Cheathru Rua immediately worked a goal chance.
Maitiu O Domhnaill set the excellent Myles MacDonnchadha clear from the throw-in but his low shot cannoned off the foot of the post.
Feargal O Se, frustrated with a couple of earlier misses from frees, still finished off the move with a point.
Naomh Padraig then came to the boil with two great points, the first from Lynch and the second from county man McColgan, to reopen the two-point gap at 0-7 to 0-5. They could have grabbed their own goal too but couldn’t extend their lead to any more than two points.
And two more Carraroe scores, the second of which was a converted O Se free after MacDonnchadha was fouled, tied it up at 0-7 apiece.
Paudie MacCormac broke a 14-minute scoring drought with an An Cheathru Rua point.
McColgan then slotted a dazzling score after a great catch and turn in front of the Hill 16 End, celebrating with a clenched fist as he returned to his position.
The sides remained tied at 0-8 apiece deep into stoppage time until O Conghaile finally seized the responsibility with that pearler from the left of goals.
An Cheathru Rua: S O Flatharta; D O Ceoinin, I O Conchubhair, S O Tiarnaigh; C O Domhnaill, M MacDonnchadha (0-1), E de Paor; S O Briain, P MacDonnacha (0-1); P O Loideain, M O Domhnaill, F O Conghaile (0-4); M O Briain, E MacCormac, F O Se (0-2, 1f).
Subs: O O Lochnain for MacCormac 36, P MacCormac (0-1, 1f) for O Tiarnaigh 46, C O Domhnaill for S O Briain 55, M O Tuathail for O Conchubhair 60, S Og O Loideain for P MacDonnchadha 63.
Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin: O McCauley; D McIntyre, C Harkin, C Kelly; R Hoy, J Toye, J McCallion; E Mullan, Cormac McColgan (0-1); O McIntyre, K Doherty (0-1), J McCauley; R Hirrell, K Lynch (0-4, 3f), Caolan McColgan (0-2).
Subs: D McKinney for Doherty 35, M McCarron for Hoy 44, A McCarron for McCallion 55, D Keaveney for Toye 60.
Ref: J Hayes (Limerick).
