Padraig Pearses (Roscommon) 1-13 Knockmore (Mayo) 1-11
Padraig Pearses struck the decisive blow just three minutes into their Connacht club final win over Knockmore in Ballina on Sunday afternoon. Hubert Darcy’s penalty fired his team into a lead they never relinquished as the south Roscommon club claimed their first ever provincial title.
A forgettable first half was followed by a thrilling second 30 minutes, and while the Mayo champions were second best for the most part their attempted comeback kept the crowd of over 1,500 fully engaged right up to the final whistle.
Knockmore failed to register their first score until the 20th minute when their goalkeeper, Colm Reape, fired over from 40 yards after Peter Naughton found him with a quickly taken ‘45.
In an ironic twist, Darcy who scored the penalty for the Roscommon champions, was to spend the last 10 minutes of the first half between the posts after goalkeeper Paul Whelan picked up a black card. He first lost possession and then tripped Aiden Orme leaving the referee with little choice but to send him to the sin bin.
The resultant free was guided between the posts by Orme, as was another free and a mark from the same player to finally announce Knockmore’s arrival in the final. Pearses responded with two points of their own to lead 1-3 to 0-4 at the break. Paul Carey scored two of those point for Pearses, the other coming from play via the hardworking Conor Payne.
Corner forward Carey, who finished with 0-8 in the end was the standout player for either team, with five of his points coming from play. He was to the fore during Pearses’ second half purple patch when they extended their lead to seven points - 1-9 to 0-5- after 43 minutes.
Knockmore were in serious trouble at that point but substitute Charlie Bourke found a way back for his side when he punched Darren McHale’s dropping shot to the net after Whelan failed to deal with it.
Points from Orme and Peter Naughton before the goal left Knockmore trailing by just two plaints having scored 1-2 without reply.
However, Pearses began to cope with Knockmore’s second half high press and regained their composure. Mainly through the leadership of Carey, David Murray and Darcy along with the magnificent defensive effort of the Daly brothers, Niall and Conor, sweeping in front of their full back line from midfield as part of Pearses’ blanket defence.
It was a point from Carey which restored their three point lead, before substitute Emmett Kelly extended it to four with nine minutes of normal time remaining.
It was back to a five-point game when Ronan Daly scored a brilliant point on the run from halfback, but Knockmore would not go away and in a tantalising finish fought their way back to within two points again.
Substitute Keith Ruttledge nailed two points but the back to back Mayo champions’ decision making constantly let them down as they went back and forth without threatening the Pearses goal. In one final act of drama they finally went for it but Orme fired inches over the bar.
While Pearses were deserving winners, Knockmore will have to reflect on a tally of 14 wides, a statistic that frustrated talisman Kevin McLoughlin:
“We had a lot of chances but we didn’t take them, and they took theirs. That was to prove critical and they deserved their victory.”
After so many years of county final defeats, Pearses now roll on to face Kilmacud Crokes in the All-Ireland semi-final in three weeks’ time - as Connacht champions.
Pádraig Pearses: P Whelan; M Richardson, A Butler, G Downey; C Lohan, R Daly (0-1), D Murray; N Daly, C Daly; L Daly, N Carty, S Carty; C Payne (0-1), H Darcy (1-1, one penalty), Paul Carey (0-8, three frees).
Subs: C Keogh for Downey (3 mins), T Butler (0-1) for L Daly (42 mins), E Kelly (0-1) for Carty (49 mins), S Ryan for Keogh (57 mins).
Knockmore: C Reape (0-1); S Holmes, A Naughton, David McHale; C Flynn, K King, M Park; S McHale, N Armstrong; C Dempsey, A Orme (0-5, two frees, one mark), K McLoughlin; P Ruttledge, J Ruddy, P Naughton (0-3).
Subs: L Durcan for Ruddy (21 mins), C Bourke (1-0) for King (29 mins), Darren McHale for Park (42 mins), K Ruttledge (0-2) for Durcan (57 mins), K Langan for Ruttledge (60 mins).
Referee: J Molloy (Galway).
