LONDON SFC
2004
Early
morning stroll for Brendans
By
John Collins (Irish World)
St
Brendan’s 1-10
Garryowen
0-3
For
the first fifteen minutes of this Championship
game, Garryowen threatened to make a mockery
of their recent form and looked every inch the
equal of their opponents.
For
the following forty-five minutes, Garryowen
proved just why so many people feel that they
are only the make-weights of this group, as
they failed to register a single point in that
time, a fact that is made even more shocking
by the fact that they were playing against
fourteen Brendan’s players for that period,
following the early dismissal of Sean Murphy
for a second yellow card.
St
Brendan’s, many people’s fancy for a final
appearance at least, looked average for much
of this game and but for the ineffectiveness
of the Garryowen challenge would have
struggled to land the 1-10 that they finally
ended up with.
They
were let off the hook slightly immediately
after the sending-off of Murphy, when a goal
scored by Conor McStaverick was ruled out for
a square ball by referee Eamon McAndrew. Had
that goal been deemed to be legitimate, then
St Brendan’s would have been tested to the
full.
As
it was that attack was pretty much the end of
the Garryowen challenge and with the exception
of a few late wides from the boot of
free-taker Paudge Donoghue, they failed to
trouble Billy Molloy or the rest of his
defensive posse too much.
The
winners finally shook themselves out of their
early morning slumber on twenty minutes when
Daniel O’Connor gaoled for them after some
great work by Shane Manley and Barry Solan to
set him up.
The
floodgates it appeared had just been opened,
but on this occasion at least, St Brendan’s
did not possess a vessel capable of sailing
through them.
By
half time the score stood at 1-4 to 0-3 and
over the following thirty minutes, despite
ample possession in and around midfield, the
Brendan’s managed just six points.
At
no stage were they in any danger of losing the
game, but their tactic of packing midfield to
win ball left O’Connor very isolated up
front and when the ball was moved up to him
all too often he was unable to get to it,
unsurprising considering that he had both
sides of the field to cover.
Shane
Manley worked hard for ball in midfield as did
Barry Solan and Brendan Bolger, but with the
exception of the occasional break from the
half back line
from Aiden McLernon and the efforts of
the out of place Joe Corscadden, the
Brendan’s were never really going to make
use of that ball that they worked so hard to
earn.
Garryowen
on the other hand were completely devoid of
ideas and creativity which was best
demonstrated when they deployed their extra
man to stand at corner back all on his own
after Murphy’s early dismissal. Even with
that tactic when O’Connor scored his goal,
full back John Teahan was to find himself
three against one against the Brendan’s
cavalry. Explain that one if you can?
Its
going to be tricky for Garryowen to mount any
sort of charge for the semi finals following
this performance and certainly if they were to
repeat this showing against the other
big-hitter in this group, the Kingdom Kerry
Gaels, then they will face a similar or even
more demoralising defeat.
On
the evidence of this St Brendan’s will
easily negotiate their way into the semi
finals, be it in top or second place, but to
progress further than that, they will need
more than just Messrs Manley and Solen to be
firing on all four cylinders.
Scorers:
St
Brendan’s: S Manley 0-4, B Solan 0-4, D
O’Connor 1-1, C McCaul 0-1.
Garryowen:
P Donoghue 0-1, C McStaverick 0-1, O Plunkett
0-1.
Close window
|
