St Brigid’s produce a late scoring flurry to edge past Castlehaven

All-Ireland Club Football Semi-final

St Brigid’s (Roscommon) 1-11 Castlehaven (Cork) 0-10

On a perishing day this turned into an almighty sweat. St Brigid’s were cruising and then they were flapping; they couldn’t miss and then they couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo. There will be match analysis software that explains their bipolar performance in dispassionate detail, but for now they can rejoice in the outcome.

The Roscommon champions reached their third All-Ireland club football final, and their first since 2013, with a flurry of scores in the closing minutes.

By then, their six point lead had dissolved in the acid of Castlehaven’s resurgent second half, and for a while everything was in the balance.

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The Cork champions, though, never led, and for all their pressing in the final quarter, they couldn’t find an equaliser either. Rory Maguire, the Cork full back, clattered the crossbar with a thunderous shot midway through the second half, and who knows how the game would have unfolded if that shot had found the net.

Leading by just a point with five minutes remaining, St Brigid’s recovered their composure just in time. Substitute John Cunningham kicked a towering point to steady their nerves, and with Castlehaven pushing players forward in search of a goal, St Brigid’s started to pick them off on the break.

By the time Robbie Dolan was fouled for a penalty in the third minute of stoppage time, the excellent Ben O’Carroll had the luxury of chipping it over the bar for an insurance score. Dolan had started the move with a turnover deep in his own half and burst a gut to take the last pass, galloping past Castlehaven’s scattered defence.

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St Brigid’s had played dazzling football at times in the first half, but Castlehaven kicked the last two scores of the opening period to stem the bleeding, and after that the Roscommon champions suffered a bewildering 21 minutes without a score.

The slick build-up play and smart execution that had characterised their first half performance was replaced by muddled shot selection and a more deferential attitude.

So, what happened?

“I think it’s an impossible question to answer with any certainty,” said Jerome Stack, the St Brigid’s manager, “but you can throw different things into it. Castlehaven come into the mix and how they went about things in the second half. There was our shot selection at times – and if we had got a bit of momentum there [with a score] that could have changed things. I don’t think it was confidence, but momentum is a big thing in football.

“But the biggest element was Castlehaven who threw everything at it and got that dominance. It has happened to us before for periods in games and still by the end, in the last four or five minutes, we put some moves together that got us scores and the penalty. Fellas didn’t lose their head and they were still running hard at the end of the game.”

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Damien Cahalane and his brother Conor carried injuries into the game, and according to the Castlehaven manager James McCarthy, they were both playing “on one leg”.

Damien Cahalane has been one of their most influential players this season, but it was clear that he wasn’t moving freely. Michael Hurley was dealing with a hamstring injury in recent weeks, too, and he struggled to make an impact the game as well.

The Cork champions will reflect on their poor start and the mountain they were left to climb.

St Brigid’s had 1-5 on the board before they posted their first wide but at the other end Castlehaven’s finishing wasn’t nearly as economical. Brian Hurley, who was outstanding again, missed a couple of frees that he would ordinarily expect to score, and Jack Cahalane flashed an angled shot against the crossbar when Castlehaven desperately needed some impetus.

“It takes a lot of energy [to try and come back],” said McCarthy. “With five or 10 minutes to go, I thought, ‘Here we go again, we are going to dig this one out.’ But for the width of a crossbar, we might have been up a couple of points.

“I thought we played outstanding football there in the second half. We brought it down to one. If we levelled it, I think there would have been only one winner. But that’s a good Brigid’s team. That team is going to take some beating in the final.”

St Brigid’s made a blistering start. Their first three shots flew over the bar and Brian Derwin’s goal after 13 minutes put them five points clear. It came at the end of terrific move. Derwin started it with a pass to Eddie Nolan who fed the irrepressible O’Carroll.

He jinked past two or three bamboozled defenders, and when his shooting opportunity was closed down he smuggled the ball to Derwin; the St Brigid’s full-forward improvised a near post finish with deadly precision.

The Roscommon champions stretched their lead to six points shortly afterwards and Castlehaven were struggling to cope with their pace and intricacy. Derwin, O’Carroll and Nugent were brimming with elusiveness and menace close to goal and St Brigid’s were hell bent on getting the ball to them at every opportunity.

At times Castlehaven were swamped, and even when they had the ball their transition play was pedestrian. In the second half, though, the Cork champions dictated the tempo, and they had pared back the deficit to just a point with six minutes left. They didn’t score again.

Castlehaven: Darragh Cahalane, J O’Regan, R Maguire, R Walsh, T O’Mahony, Damien Cahalane, M Collins, C Cahalane, A Whelton, C O’Sullivan, M Hurley (0-1), S Browne, C Maguire (0-2), B Hurley (0-7, 0-3 frees, 0-1 45), J Cahalane. Subs: C O’Driscoll for Browne h-t; J O’Driscoll for O’Sullivan 58 mins; M Maguire for C Cahalane 60 mins

St Brigid’s: C Sheehy, A Daly, B Stack, P Frost, R Fallon, R Stack, P McGrath (0-1), E Nolan, S Cunnane, C Hand, C Sugrue (0-1), R Dolan (0-1), B O’Carroll (0-3, 0-1 pen), B Derwin (1-1), B Nugent (0-3, 0-1 free). Subs: J Cunningham (0-1) for Derwin 44 mins; M Daly for Cunnane 54 mins; C Gleeson for Nugent 60+3 mins

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)

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