All-Ireland club football final/Salthill-Knocknacarra 0-7 St Gall's 0-6: Conventional sports reporting doesn't allow for it, but, really, these few paragraphs should be about the weather.
On a day when brass monkeys wore fleecy codpieces and the fingers of heroic reporters froze solid above the nibs of their fountain pens, Salthill pulled off a coup which warmed us all (metaphorically, but not, alas, literally).
A point ahead at half-time as they went inside to wrap themselves in thermal blankets, it seemed as if all was lost for them.
The Galway men had played the first 30 minutes with the benefit of a mean, arctic (surely?) wind, and apparently needed a more extravagant margin if they were to survive with their faces to the elements.
St Gall's did what they promised they would do. They left two men huddled together in front of the opposition goalposts and nobody else within 50 yards. They hit thoughtful diagonal balls for the two forwards to chase into the corners. Then the infantry would arrive to support them. It worked fine against Nemo.
Yesterday there was a glitch.
Accuracy.
St Gall's hit three points into the teeth of the wind in the first half. They hit seven wides and they dropped a few balls short.
In hindsight, St Gall's will feel they could have wrapped things up by the break. In reality, we all just thought that by limiting Salthill's innings they had done that anyway.
It was a tough day to play football. Both sides had contrasting news before the start. Michael Donnellan started the game. St Gall's goalie Paddy Murray didn't. Having failed to recover from a damaged toe, he was replaced by Ronan Gallagher of Fermanagh.
St Gall's won a lot of ball around the middle of the park in the first quarter, and as the game stayed scoreless for the first seven minutes you could sense a little panic among the Galway men. They weren't scoring much. St Gall's threatened to.
Still, all Salthill could do was build a lead. After seven minutes a long ball went over Colin Brady's head in the St Gall's defence. Seamie Crowe burst through and had the beating of Gallagher, but took a point when a goal seemed possible.
Never mind. A minute later a long ball from centre back Gordon Morley broke off a defender and found Seamie Rabbitte. Two points clear.
St Gall's were persistent though. It took them 17 minutes to find a score, but then they found two, Karl Stewart and Burns clipping a couple. Level when playing into a bad wind on a big field like Croke Park seemed very satisfactory, especially as they were creating chances.
Being a point up seemed even better a few minutes later when Burns scored again at the end of a fine move. A minute later, Aodhan Gallagher hit a low snap shot which needed a good save from Cathal McGinley. Salthill looked frazzled. Half-time was approaching.
Salthill upped their effort for the last five minutes of the half. Barry Dooney put them level on 27 minutes, and then Maurice Sheridan's free-taking came right and he gave them the lead.
For St Gall's, the second half was a disaster. It seemed that all they had to do was kick the ball early and often out to the corners and scores would surely follow.
Instead, they overplayed things half the time and the rest of the time couldn't get decent ball out to where they wanted it. With the wind at their backs they went 26 minutes without scoring.
Not that Salthill didn't contribute to their success. They operated in the second half as St Gall's had done in the first. Seán Armstrong came out to the centre-forward spot. Sheridan and Crowe stayed inside hoping they wouldn't starve. Michael Donnellan went roving looking for the ball.
It worked. Salthill pulled out three scores in the first 12 minutes. They were enough to win the game. Rabbitte took a sublime point from a very difficult angle under the Nally. Maurice Sheridan followed with a point a minute later. There were 28 minutes left. Plenty of time for St Gall's.
The clock ran down slowly but St Gall's never got the chances they needed. Cian Begley turned in a fine performance at corner back for Salthill, keeping the ball out of Kevin Niblock's hands for long stretches.
When St Gall's did get scoring, each point came from a sub, Conor McGourty, and each point came from a free.
St Gall's will have many regrets. They might have had a goal when a Burns free came scudding in lowish and hard. Aodhan Gallagher turned it to the net. Square ball said the referee.
A while later, a Burns free came off the chest of Cathal McGinley and dropped into the square. Kevin McGourty made a surprised dive at it, but the ball bobbled wide.
In the end, nobody could complain. Salthill got what they came for by playing the smarter football. Portumna's captain, Eugene McEntee, had visited their dressingroom just before they went out urging them to make it a Galway double.
Easy to say when you're just coming in from the cold.
SALTHILL/KNOCKNACARRA: C McGinley; R McTiernan, F Hanley, C Begley; M O'Connell, G Morley, B Geraghty; M Sheridan (0-2, frees), B Dooney (0-1); A Kerins, M Donnellan, S Rabbitte (0-2); S Crowe (0-1), J Boylan, S Armstrong (0-1). Subs: A Callanan for J Boylan (12 mins), D Burke for Kerins (31 mins), PJ Kelly for A Callanan (52 mins), F McCann for Crowe (60 mins), A McDermott for B Geraghty (63 mins).
ST GALL'S: R Gallagher; S Kennedy, Kiernan McGourty, C Brady; A Healey, G McGirr, S Kelly; M McCrory, C McCrossan; P Gribbin, S Burns (0-2, one free), A Gallagher; K Stewart (0-1), Kevin McGourty, K Niblock. Subs: A McLean for C McCrossan (36 mins), T O'Neill for K Stewart (49 mins), C McGourty (0-3) for Kiernan McGourty (53 mins).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
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