Match Reports >> 2009 Match Reports >> Crossmolina 3-6 Iorras Aontaithe B (aet)

July 9th 2009 Crossmolina 3-6 Iorras Aontaithe B (aet)

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Iorras Aontaithe secured their berth in this season’s Tuohy Cup final after surviving a gutsy Crossmolina fightback in Abbeytown on Thursday evening. The visitors had held a seemingly unassailable two goal advantage with twenty minutes remaining but the Deelsiders forced extra time before rapidly conceding three goals themselves. Considering the barrage of goals that followed it was perhaps surprising that the first half ended scoreless but it wasn’t due to lack of effort on behalf of the hosts who created numerous chances but failed to convert any of them. Eoin Corcoran was the first to test the visitors defence after three minutes when he engineered a clever shot from the left of the penalty area that curled just past the right post. Five minutes later the home team squandered their first gilt-edged chance of the half when Paul Flaherty’s pass from the left flank found Stewart Griffin on the right. The midfielder glided past the defence but, confronted by goalkeeper Enda Conroy, he flubbed his shot weakly into the goalie’s grasp from six yards out. The Gaeltacht side, who had been outplayed in the opening stages, countered with an attempt of their own in the eleventh minute when John Noel Flannery met Robert Carey’s cross from the right with a great header from ten yards out but Crossmolina custodian Mark Fox reacted superbly and jabbed the ball away instinctively with his outstretched arm. Play continued to flow in the opposite direction and five minutes later Griffin was granted an opportunity to atone for his earlier miss when Flaherty’s right wing free kick found him unmarked at the back post. This time he applied a firmer contact to the ball but his header from six yards out was magnificently batted upwards by Conroy in net and Brian Benson’s follow-up attempt at a bicycle kick sailed over the bar.

There was an action replay of this passage of play ten minutes later when Flaherty again flighted an accurate free kick from the right but this time the beneficiary, Michael Cafferty, who had snuck in behind the defence, headed wide from six yards at the far post. The hosts superb first half performance culminated in two more chances before the break. The first, with five minutes remaining, saw Flaherty meet Enda Jordan’s raking pass from the right with a solid volley that Conroy gratefully fell upon. In the final minute the roles were reversed when Jordan met Flaherty’s delivery from the left with a header at the back post that went narrowly wide. If the first half had been high on action but low on goals then the second stanza immediately set about making amends for that. Scarcely a minute after the whistle had sounded Stephen Nallen doggedly won a sliding tackle on the edge of the Crossmolina penalty area before bouncing up off the grass and lashing a thunderous shot that flew into the net. Directly from the restart Griffin threaded a defence-splitting pass through the Iorras rearguard and, under pressure from Corcoran, Simon McGrath hooked the ball into his own net from outside the penalty area. Undaunted by the immediate reply the Iorras men fared better in the second half and they were rewarded with two goals later in the period.

In the fifty fifth minute Colin Stewart nudged the visitors ahead again when he nodded a high return pass from a teammate past the last defender and, with only Fox to beat, he calmly poked the ball into the corner of the net. Five minutes later Harry Reilly capitalised on some defensive uncertainty when he lobbed a high arcing effort over Fox, who was on the edge of his penalty area, into the vacated goal. Twenty minutes into the half Stewart could have grabbed a second goal for himself when he met a half cleared corner kick with a vicious volley on the edge of the area but Fox dove to make a quality save. Five minutes later the game turned once more when James Fergus’ foraging up front earned him possession and he delivered a cross from the right that Corcoran headed onto the left post, causing the ball to dribble along the goal line agonisingly. The striker reacted quickest and thumped the ball into the net to give Crossmolina a glimmer of hope. The comeback was completed one minute before the end when Griffin guided a header over the Iorras defence and substitute Jason Canavan latched onto it before slipping it past Conroy. Astonishingly the hosts could have clinched victory in the final minute when Brian Benson ripped a fifteen yard shot from the left of the penalty area that demanded a good save from Conroy.

After all the excitement that had preceded it extra time was a dreadful anti-climax. Aontaithe scored within a minute when James Tighe hit a blistering twenty yard free kick that rebounded firstly off the upright and then off netminder Fox before settling in the net. Four minutes later Reilly notched his second and three minutes into the second period Carey thumped in number six from fifteen yards out for the visitors. It was a cruel end for Crossmolina who had given a good account of themselves for most of the match but Iorras won’t worry about that as they prepare for their day out in Milebush later this month.

Crossmolina – Mark Fox, Mark Howley, Mark Loftus (Chris Moyles 99), Michael Cafferty, Sean Hiney, Enda Jordan (Johnny Burke 63), Stewart Griffin, James Fergus (Jason Canavan 83), Paul Flaherty, Eoin Corcoran, Brian Benson

Iorras Aontaithe – Enda Conroy, Tom Duffy, Tom Gruddy, Eamon Monaghan, Simon McGrath, Stephen Nallen, Robert Carey, Colin Stewart, James Tighe, Harry Reilly, John Noel Flannery Subs – Gary Keane, Sean Kerrigan, Damian Farrell, David McDonnell, Oisin O’Donoghue

Referee – Aiden Nevin

Match Reports >> 2009 Match Reports >> Crossmolina 3-6 Iorras Aontaithe B (aet)