Cork fail to live up to the hype

THE strange and unpredictable nature of U-21 football was manifestly evident again in Ennis on Saturday night.

The excellent football Cork displayed in their provincial domain as they crushed Tipperary and Kerry, saw them predictably installed as heavy favourites to negotiate this All-Ireland semi-final.

But the theme of surprise results in the U-21 grade this season was maintained as a well-organised and resilient Galway team ended Cork’s hopes of All-Ireland glory.

That prospect did not look realistic midway through the second-half. When Mark Collins hooked over a fine point in the 42nd minute, he stretched Cork’s lead to 0-11 to 0-7.

After opening the game in a sluggish fashion, Cork had corrected their shortcomings either side of the interval. In a 25-minute spell Cork outscored their opponents by 0-9 to 0-2, reproducing some of their dazzling Munster final form. Yet they dipped inexplicably in the last quarter and sub Kevin Hallissey’s 61st minute point was the solitary score they registered in the closing 21 minutes of action.

Cork’s malaise corresponded with a surge in Galway’s fortunes, with the game swinging in the Tribesmen’s favour courtesy of two pivotal incidents.

First, Cork were robbed of midfielder Aidan Walsh’s powerful presence when he limped off with a hamstring injury (Cork were also forced into a change before throw-in when hamstring victim Paul Honohan was replaced by Brian Coughlan).

Galway had been making solid progress in that sector throughout and brilliant Athenry midfielder Tomás Flynn, who is just out of the minor grade, thrived.

“Aidan was a big loss,” admitted Cork manager John Cleary afterwards. “Coming into the last ten minutes of the game, you want your senior players to be there stepping up to the mark but he wasn’t there for us. We were trying to get a sub on as well and play continued when we’d 14 men. Next thing Aidan’s man was involved in the move to get a point. That’s the way things go.”

00Cork’s aspirations took a further hit when Galway pounced for the only goal of the game. The move stemmed from a wonderful pass by Mark Hehir to substitute Adrian Murphy who did brilliantly to quickly transfer the ball to the onrushing Michael Boyle. The Killererin man kept his cool to fire a stinging drive past Cork goalkeeper Sean Mellet.

“Adrian is very unlucky not to be involved in the starting 15,” revealed Galway boss Alan Mulholland. “He has great vision and he showed that there. Michael Boyle had been doing well from play yet wasn’t scoring. But he still showed great courage to put the ball into the back of the net.”

That strike injected Galway with crucial momentum and they kept their noses in front thereafter. Cork unleashed waves of attacks late on, but were met with admirable resistance by a defence with star performers in Colin Forde, Jonathan Duane and Tomás Fahy.

Ciaran Sheehan, Cork’s outstanding attacker on the evening, filled the midfield role vacated by Walsh but that denied the Cork attack his direct running and assured point-taking. Galway substitute Michael Farragher knocked over a vital late point and Mulholland’s team were rewarded for persevering until the end.

Mulholland said: “It was looking grim for us during the second-half. We knew the likes of Ciaran Sheehan were very good footballers and that we’d cough up scores to them. It was just a matter of sticking in there. We thought beforehand if we were there with five minutes to go, we could pull ahead and we did.

“They looked awesome against Kerry and, on reflection, that didn’t help them. But we’ve very good backs. We kept Sligo to 0-7 and Roscommon to 0-4, so we knew we wouldn’t give away scores to them like Kerry did.”

Cleary agreed: “In hindsight maybe we’d have been better only beating Kerry by a point but you can’t work like that. We were being hyped out of all proportion after the Kerry game but we knew we were coming up against a very good team. They showed more hunger and drive for it. It’s very disappointing.”

Scorers for Galway: M Hehir 0-5 (0-3f), M Boyle 1-1, E Monahan 0-2, T Flynn, P Sweeney, M Farragher 0-1 each.

Scorers for Cork: C Sheehan 0-4, M Collins 0-3 (1f), B O’Driscoll 0-2, A Walsh, D Óg Hodnett, K Hallissey 0-1 each.

GALWAY: M Breathnach; G Sweeney, C Forde, A Tierney; J Moore, J Duane, T Fahy; T Flynn, F Ó Curraoin; C Doherty, M Hehir, M Boyle; D Cummins, P Sweeney, E Monahan.

Subs: A Murphy for Sweeney (43), M Farragher for Cummins (57), JJ Greaney for Monahan (62).

CORK: S Mellet; L Jennings, D Cahalane, A Cronin; P Daly, T Clancy, J Wall; M Ó’Laoire, A Walsh; C Sheehan, M Collins, J O’Rourke; B O’Driscoll, D Óg Hodnett, B Coughlan.

Subs: D Nation for Ó’Laoire (ht), K Hallissey for Walsh (inj. 48), E Buckley for Coughlan (50).

Referee: J. Curley (Meath).