ALL-IRELAND CLUB SEMI-FINAL
NEMO RANGERS...0-14 CROSSMOLINA...1-9Chief amongst the amazing things in this eventful AIB All-Ireland club football final was the fact that with the final minutes slipping away it was still there teetering on the edge.
For most of the match Crossmolina had looked the team with more gas in the tank and more cut up front. Yet they allowed the promise to go unfulfilled even as Nemo appeared to be doing as much as possible to throw away the chance to extend their record at the top of the roll of honour to seven titles.
At times in the second half laboured and indecisive, the Cork champions looked incapable of making their greatly improved possession pay off. But they showed unbreakable resolve in keeping up the pressure until Crossmolina cracked.
It was an extraordinary display of mental fortitude by a Nemo team that had lost the last two All-Irelands. No side has ever bounced back to win the year after losing, let alone after losing two. And that is an achievement to stand comparison with any in the club's glittering history.
The determination was typified by Colin Corkery. The big full forward can usually be counted on for large returns and the occasional erratic finish. But yesterday he didn't have a great day. Four points from play is a good tally but he also managed seven wides - three of them in a five-minute spell towards the end.
In the last minute, with the scores level, he took a 55-metre free quickly to Maurice McCarthy, whose display when moved to centrefield with Kevin Cahill helped Nemo dominate the middle in the last quarter. McCarthy returned it to Corkery and his massive kick - uninhibited by previous failures - soared over the bar effectively to decide the match.
Despite a firecracker start, which had seen them race into a 0-4 to no score lead within eight minutes, Nemo were soon under pressure and lost their central defenders, Niall Geary and Martin Cronin, to injury within 18 minutes.
Two years ago when the clubs also met in the final, Kieran McDonald inspired Crossmolina's victory. Much emphasis had been placed prior to yesterday's match on Nemo's need to handle the centre forward more effectively than they had in 2001.
Martin Cronin had been given that detail but he picked up an early injury and the whole McDonald horror film was being re-screened even before Cronin had to depart. Four points from play was the price paid in the first half as Nemo shot 10 wides.
The Mayo club had their own problems. A clash of heads in the first couple of minutes put Liam Moffatt and Enda Lavelle in the pit for treatment of blood injuries. Lavelle was unable to return although his replacement Johnny Leonard kicked two points.
Crossmolina began to dominate possession. Their wing backs frequently got up the field and they looked faster, livelier and more inventive. The sides were level in the 20th minute when McDonald picked out Joe Keane with an incisive pass, the full forward offloaded to Moffat, who drilled the ball to the net.
By this stage Nemo were just about clinging on. The wider Croke Park pitch was exposing their less mobile attack and a couple of chances to get back into the game went astray. In the 25th minute Alan Cronin, whose tireless running and accuracy made him many people's man of the match, got in for a shot at goal.
He struck it well but Heffernan saved marvellously well - an echo of two years ago. Five minutes later Joe Kavanagh had a good opportunity well blocked by corner back Colm Reilly.
McDonald rounded off the half with a point to give Crossmolina a two-point lead, 1-6 to 0-7.
But like two years ago, pole position at the interval proved an unreliable indicator. Just as Nemo lost the initiative then so Crossmolina failed to kill the game yesterday. In the early stages of the second half they had ample opportunity to put the game away but squandered good opportunities - McDonald spurning three of them in succession.
As the match progressed without Crossmolina putting it away, Nemo steadied. Their marshalling at the back was tighter and Gary Murphy acquitted himself well on McDonald but it was the drying up of possession at centrefield that most undermined the Mayo side.
In the tense endgame both sides appeared to be trying to outdo the other in throwing it away. Nemo, having clawed back level, just couldn't take straightforward chances. But with the demon hisses of the past two years sounding an unnerving soundtrack, the Cork side performed a memorable exorcism.
NEMO RANGERS: D Heaphy; L Kavanagh, N Geary, Seán O'Brien; G Murphy, M Cronin, M Daly; K Cahill (0-1), D Kavanagh; A Cronin (0-4), Steven O'Brien, M McCarthy; J Kavanagh (0-3), C Corkery (capt; 0-6, 1f, 1 45), W Morgan. Subs: P Brophy for Geary (15 mins), B O'Regan for M Cronin (26 mins), D Mehigan for D Kavanagh (51 mins), JP O'Neill for Steven O'Brien (51 mins).
CROSSMOLINA: B Heffernan; S Rochford, T Nallen, C Reilly; P Gardiner, D Mulligan, G O'Malley; G Walsh (0-1), J Nallen (capt); M Moyles, K McDonald (0-5, 1f), E Lavelle; L Moffat (1-0), J Keane (0-1), P McGuinness. Subs: J Leonard (0-2) for Lavelle (3 mins), P McAndrew for O'Malley (50 mins).
Referee: B Crowe (Cavan).
