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Extra-time heartbreak for Carn
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Carndonagh...0-17 Naomh Mhuire...2-12 By Damien Dowds, Inishowen Independent CARN'S brave push for promotion to Division 2 of the All County League ran aground on Saturday when they fell to an extra-time defeat by Naomh Mhuire in the league semi-final. This was the fourth meeting between the sides this year, with Naomh Mhuire holding the upper hand with two victories (including the quarter-final of the Junior Championship) to Carn’s one. Naomh Mhuire are currently seeking Ulster Junior Club Championship honours, and will play the Monaghan champions in the semi-final next weekend, but their focus was very much on promotion. Carn, who were relegated only last season, were anxious to bounce straight back into Division 2, but the concession of goals at crucial times proved their undoing. |
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They had been well on top
in the second half but a fumbled high ball by goalkeeper
Dermot Doherty allowed the Annagry side in for a goal
that brought them back into the game when they looked
dead and buried. Indeed, it took a nerveless Donnacha
Gallagher to convert an injury time free to send the
game into extra time. And Carn were the better side for most of extra time, but when Owenie McGarvey converted a first period penalty, the signs were ominous. But there was no faulting Carn’s commitment and they came back to within a point of their opponents, but time finally ran out and it is Naomh Mhuire who are promoted and will play Naomh Bríd in the Division 3 final. Despite playing into the teeth of a strong wind, Carn fared well in the first half and opened the scoring when Donnacha Gallagher showed good awareness to knock a short free to Darren Burke, take the return pass and tap over the bar in the first minute. Ciaran McGinley responded with a pointed free for the Gaeltacht side before both players swapped frees to make it 0-2 apiece after 11 minutes. |
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With Ronan O’Connor and
captain Paddy Nelson strong in defence, Carn were
dealing with everything that Naomh Mhuire could throw at
them and more than held their own in the tricky
conditions. Christy McLaughlin picked up a quick free and pointed from the left before McGinley replied at the other end. Then half forwards Shane Kelly and Donnacha Gallagher combined and swept the ball over to Cathal O’Kane to push Carn a point ahead in the 20th minute, but that man McGinley scored from near the sideline to equalise. Carn went to sleep as the half wound to a close allowing Naomh Mhuire to score three unanswered points – two from McGinley on either side of an effort from substitute Packie McGonagle – in three minutes to take a 0-7 to 0-4 half-time lead. A point from Patrick McCafferty a minute into the second period made it double scores to the west Donegal men, but Carn soon found their rhythm and took complete command, hitting five unanswered points in seven minutes to take a 0-9 to 0-8 lead and leave Naomh Mhuire reeling. First Christy McLaughlin shaped to shoot with his right but instead threw a soloed dummy and curled over a fine point with his left foot. Donnacha Gallagher won a kick out in the 35th minute and soloed 20m before tapping over a point. Shane Kelly scored an identical point from the resulting kick out as Naomh Mhuire found themselves at sixes and sevens. |
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Declan
O’Donnell then won a ball in the corner in the 37th
minute and laid back for right half back Dominic Doherty
to strike low over the bar for the equaliser, before the
former won the ball on the 13m line, spun to his left
and tapped over to put Carn 0-9 to 0-8 in the lead. It was all Carn at this stage, and Declan O’Donnell was unlucky to see his goal bound shot rebound off the left hand post and cleared by the Naomh Mhuire defence in the 40th minute. The breeze was dying down as the action of the pitch turned a bit scrappy, but Darren Burke put Carn 0-10 to 0-8 ahead when he picked up a short 45 and struck the ball over the black spot in the 48th minute. Having been held scoreless by the resolute Carn defence for more than 20 minutes, Sean McGinley finally registered a point |
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for Naomh Mhuire in the
52nd minute, but that was cancelled out when Donnacha
Gallagher won and converted a free just two minutes
later. Having played on each of the past five weeks running, Naomh Mhuire were beginning to flag against a fresher and fitter looking Carn side. And it was against the run of play that they dragged themselves back into the match. A shot from distance from Ciaran McGinley dropped short, but goalkeeper Dermot Doherty misjudged its flight and it bounced off his chest. The lurking Naomh Mhuire centre-half forward Tom McHugh dived full length to punch the loose ball to the net with just five minutes of the half remaining. It was a cruel blow on Carn, but Darren Burke showed good composure to point a minute later to draw his side back level at 0-12 to 1-9. Tom McHugh put Annagry ahead with a well-taken point three minutes from time and the Gaeltacht men set out to defend their slender 1-10 to 0-12 lead. Carn threw everything at them, but couldn’t break through. But when defender James McBride lay down on the ball in injury time, the referee awarded a free. Carn’s former under-21 county player Donnacha Gallagher, who gave a breath-taking display of score taking from placed ball and from play throughout the 80 minutes, kept his nerve to strike over and send the game into extra time. Gallagher was again on target from the placed ball when he pointed in the third minute of additional time from 14m directly in front of the goals, but then added a spectacular point from an acute angle on the left to put Carn two points up. But once again, a goal proved to be Carn’s undoing. Tom McHugh was adjudged to have been on the receiving end of a foot block a minute before the interval and Owenie McGarvey made no mistake from the spot. Substitute Johnny Gallagher followed up with a tap over point to give the Gaeltacht men a two point interval lead. Packie McGonagle added his second point of the day in the second minute of the second period of extra time to put three between the sides, but Carn refused to give up. Having scored a spectacular point from the left wing in the first period of extra-time Donnacha Gallagher landed another audacious effort, this time from the right wing, midway through the second period. He was narrowly wide with a 55m free a minute later, before, with three minutes of the game remaining, Cathal O’Kane escaped the attention of three defenders, but his long-distance shot fell agonisingly short and was cleared. Carn needed a goal now, but just couldn’t find their way through the wall of bodies that Naomh Mhuire erected on their 20m line. A point from play from Donnacha Gallagher on the stroke of full-time in extra-time put a single point between the teams. Carn simply had to win the kick out and get a score, but Naomh Mhuire killed the ball and referee Mickey Mulhern sounded the long whistle signalling delight for Naomh Mhuire but devastation for Carn. Having spent five seasons in the basement division themselves, Naomh Mhuire were delighted to have finally escaped. And so Carn’s season, which started 33 weeks ago with victory over Letterkenny Gaels, ultimately ends in failure. Carn are much too good for Division 3 football: that they pushed Naomh Mhuire – one of the best junior club sides in Ulster – so hard proves that. It was their away form early in the season that proved costly this year and next year they again find themselves on the bottom rung. If they can improve their away form, then they will be candidates for the outright promotion place next season. Carndonagh: Dermot Doherty (B); Michael McLaughlin (M), Patrick Nelson, Michael Nelson; Dominic Doherty, Mark Canny, Ronan O’Connor; Gerard Doherty, Darren Burke; Shane Kelly, Donnacha Gallagher, Cathal O’Kane; Christy McLaughlin, Cathal Doherty, Declan O’Donnell. Subs: Fergal Matthews for O’Donnell (46 mins); Barry McElhinney for Dominic Doherty (57 mins); Ryan Davenport for Matthews (63 mins); Naomh Mhuire: Sean Gallagher; JC Mulholland, Charlie Doherty, James McBride; Seamus Ferry, Brendan Boyle, Seamus Gallagher; Owenie McGarvey, Neil Anthony O’Donnell; Brian Mulholland, Tom McHugh, Joe Kelly; Sean Boyle, Patrick McCafferty, Ciaran McGinley. Subs: Packie McGonagle for Kelly and Thomas Duffy for Ferry (24 mins); Ciaran Doherty for B. Mulholland (46 mins); Johnny Gallagher for S. Boyle (50 mins); Daniel Gallagher for Seamus Gallagher (65 mins). Scorers for Carndonagh: Donnacha Gallagher 0-9 (4 frees) Christy McLaughlin 0-2 Darren Burke 0-2 Cathal O’Kane 0-1 Shane Kelly 0-1 Dominic Doherty 0-1 Declan O’Donnell 0-1 Scorers for Naomh Mhuire: Ciaran McGinley 0-7 (3 frees) Tom McHugh 1-1 Owenie McGarvey 1-0 (penalty) Packie McGonagle 0-2 Patrick McCafferty 0-1 Johnny Gallagher 0-1 For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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