All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Watty Graham’s Glen (Derry) 1-14 Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 2-10
From out of the fog emerged Watty Graham’s Glen.
The Derry champions survived a late Kilmacud fightback a win a surreal All-Ireland club senior football semi-final played under a blanket of fog, which at times made it difficult for spectators to see what was happening on the far side of the pitch at Páirc Esler.
Glen led by seven points during the second half, got reeled back level by Crokes in the closing stages but then managed to go four ahead again in the dying seconds of a chaotic closing period in which both sides scored injury-time goals.
At the final whistle just the minimum separated the sides, Glen had won a rematch 12 months in the making.
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“It was a tough finish but even when things were going against the boys they showed great character to be able to get the victory,” said Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke.
For a game with so much baggage from last year’s All-Ireland final, the dominant talking point of the day was the fog hanging over the pitch and whether the game should have gone ahead – though Crokes were not using it as an excuse afterwards.
“I thought it was bananas to be honest, but the same for Glen, you have to take your hats off to them,” said Crokes manager Robbie Brennan.
“But if that was round two of a local championship, it wouldn’t go ahead. You couldn’t see what was happening in the far corner, we could have turned it over and won the ball and you wouldn’t have known.
“But it was the same for Glen, I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses, they were far the better team on the day.”
Glen led 0-9 to 0-4 at half-time and appeared to be easing towards a place in the All-Ireland final as they pulled away to lead by seven by the 41st minute.
And then Crokes, who had been very poor up until that stage, found a patch of form and penned Glen in, the defending All-Ireland champions were suddenly transformed from beaten docket to a belligerent side refusing to accept their fate.
Crokes scored 1-4 without reply to draw level in the 55th minute – the goal converted by Hugh Kenny after a sublime crossfield pass by Shane Walsh, 1-9 to 0-13.
The pendulum of the game looked to have swung. But to Glen’s credit they swept up the field and Alex Doherty pointed them in front again almost immediately – though it possibly could have been a goal as Crokes, not for the first time all evening, afforded the Derry outfit acres of space to attack.
Crokes goalkeeper David Higgins – who had played much of his football over the years out the field – drifted out the field and got on the end of a patient move to clip over an equalising score soon after.
Then, with the possibility of extra time looming, and visibility deteriorating, Glen grabbed the initiative again.
Bradley converted a close-range free to edge Glen one point ahead but the deciding moment arrived seconds later as Conor Glass forced a turnover after more sloppy Crokes defending, which resulted in Ethan Doherty passing the ball into an empty net with 62 minutes and eight seconds on the clock. They’d done it.
And then they almost hadn’t.
Just 42 seconds later a speculative long-range effort by Walsh was lost in the fog and dropped over Glen goalkeeper Connlan Bradley. Goal. Though many in the ground seemed confused as to what had actually happened.
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Crokes then won the resulting kickout but a last-gasp effort by Walsh was off target. Glen had survived.
“The way it worked out, we were under pressure and to go four points up, with a minute and a half left, I thought the game should have been over,” admitted O’Rourke.
“And then to concede the goal straight after. We were lucky enough to hold out.”
But it would have been hard on Glen to not leave Newry with a ticket to Croke Park in two weeks. They had been the better team for most of the encounter. Crokes had struggled to hit a consistent level of form all season and they never hit their peak here either.
“We only played for 10 or 11 minutes, it was nearly enough to get it done but you don’t get that opportunity to play for that little amount of time and beat a team like Glen,” said Brennan. “All credit to them, they were far the better team.”
But Crokes actually got off to better start and registered the opening two scores of the game, points by Luke Ward and Mark O’Leary, to lead 0-2 to no score after five minutes.
However, they would manage just two further points for the remainder of the entire first half – the last of those coming in the final minute of normal time.
During the period when Crokes scored just twice, Glen put 0-9 on the board and were much more comfortable in the conditions.
Glass and Bradley were the dominant pairing in the middle of the field while the Kilmacud defence were guilty of leaving large swathes of space open for Glen to exploit.
The impressive Michael Warnock, who was marking Walsh, made several surges up the field and was on the end of one particular move in the 25th minute to pop over his side’s sixth point of the game.
When Paul Mannion was turned over moments later at the other end of the field, a huge roar bounced around Páirc Esler and that was matched at the half-time whistle as Glen went in at the turnaround with a five-point advantage.
To Kilmacud’s credit they could have been forgiven had they downed tools when slipping seven adrift in the second half, but the Stillorgan outfit defended their title to the dying seconds.
It’s not their title any longer though. And in two weeks Glen will have the opportunity to finally get their hands on the Andy Merrigan Cup.
KILMACUD CROKES: David Higgins (0-1); James Murphy, Theo Clancy, Dan O’Brien; Mark O’Leary (0-1), Rory O’Carroll, Andrew McGowan; Craig Dias, Brian Sheehy; Shane Horan, Shane Cunningham, Dara Mullin; Paul Mannion (0-4, 2f), Luke Ward (0-1), Shane Walsh (1-2, 0-1 45). Subs: Cian O’Connor (0-1) for Ward (ht); Hugh Kenny (1-0) for Sheehy (ht); Darragh Dempsey for Cunningham (44 mins); Padraic Purcell for Mullin (61 mins)
WATTY GRAHAM’S GLEN: Connlan Bradley; Michael Warnock (0-1), Ryan Dougan, Connor Carville; Jody McDermott, Ciarán McFaul (0-1), Cathal Mulholland (0-1); Conor Glass (0-1), Emmet Bradley (0-3, 2f); Ethan Doherty (1-0), Jack Doherty, Eunan Mulholland (0-1); Conleth McGuckian, Danny Tallon (0-5, 4f), Tiarnan Flanagan. Subs: Conor Convery for J Doherty (22 mins); Alex Doherty (0-1) for Dougan (40 mins)
REFEREE: Conor Lane (Cork)
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