SFC Qualifier Derry 0-10 Limerick 0-7 The local brass band earned the warmest applause of the day for their rendition of Limerick, You're a Lady. A pity the football bordered on the abysmal, the main difference between the teams being that Derry had the persistence to rack up four unanswered points in the last ten minutes of a forgettable game.
Meath referee David Coldrick did not help matters. He lacked authority and consistently earned the wrath of both sets of supporters among the 6,000 spectators at Hyde Park.
The pattern of the afternoon was stop-start and of the round total of 30 frees awarded in each half, many went the wrong way.
Limerick manager Liam Kearns insisted his players were "victims of the system" in having to play a third serious championship tie on successive weekends. He told the Derry players, "Ye had the legs on us at the finish."
Given the recent introducion of restrictions on such matters, it was not surprising that the managers resisted commenting on the referee, both content to remark, perhaps tongue in cheek, that "the wind spoiled the match".
It proved a frustrating afternoon for the football purist, as Derry's star forward Enda Muldoon confirmed. "It was not about pretty football today. It was more about getting a result and a battle ensued."
Limerick had their full back Johnny McCarthy sent to the line for a second bookable offence in the closing stages. The strong St Kieran's man had operated to great effect along with proficient corner backs Conor O'Riordan and Tommy Stack. But his dismissal was hardly decisive as Derry at last got into a scoring groove with those four crucial points from Muldoon, substitute Gavin Donaghy, Paddy Bradley and Conleth Moran.
Scoring was slow at the start. Limerick, playing with the breeze, pointed in the sixth and seventh minutes through Conor Fitzgerald and Muiris Gavin. Even then there was an inkling the normally prolific Derry full-forward line were in for a quiet afternoon. Some 13 minutes had passed before Muldoon, off two frees, got Derry on the board.
Wayward passing and disciplined defence on both sides limited scoring. Another 24 minutes elapsed before Eoin Keating put Limerick ahead again with a pointed free. And after poor attempts by Paddy Bradley and Conleth Moran, Muldoon had Derry's third point some 15 minutes after his second. Riveting it certainly wasn't.
Limerick could hardly have been content with a one-point interval lead, 0-4 to 0-3, having played with the breeze, but Micky Moran was quite happy, especially after Johnny McBride's superb equalising point five minutes into the second half.
Moran later described that point as a corner-turning score.
Paddy Bradley and Moran followed up with similar scores for a 0-6 to 0-4 lead seven minutes into the second half.
Fitzgerald's pointed free after 19 minutes was Limerick's first score of the second half. Keating, off another free, made it six apiece and then put Limerick ahead with another pointed free, their last, on 65 minutes.
Derry's big finish followed and there was no way back for a fatigued Limerick outfit.
Citing substitute Gavin Donaghy's point at the finish, Moran reiterated the maxim that "teams win matches, panels win championships".
Kearns could at least find consolation in what he saw as the continued excellence of his full-back line.
"They weathered the best Kerry's top marskmen could throw at them and the same was the case today," he said.
Certainly the aggregate haul of six points, three from frees, by Muldoon and Paddy Bradley hardly compares favourably with that duo's combined 1-13 tally the previous week against Wexford.
DERRY: B Gillis; K McGuckin, N McCusker, G O'Kane; F McEldowney, P McFlynn, P Kelly; F Doherty, Patsy Bradley; J Donaghy, J McBride, (0-1), C Moran (0-2); J Bradley, Paddy Bradley (0-2, one free), E Muldoon (0-4, two frees). Subs: C Gilligan for Donaghy (20 mins), SM Lockhart for McCusker (61 mins), G Donaghy (0-1) for Gilligan (66 mins), M Lynch for J Bradley (70 mins).
LIMERICK: S O'Donnell; M O'Riordan, J McCarthy, T Stack; C Mullane, S Lucey, S Lavin; J Stokes, J Galvin; S Kelly, M Gavin (0-1), M O'Brien (0-1); C Fitzgerald (0-2, one free), O Keating (0-3 frees), M Reidy. Subs: J Quane for Reidy (21 mins), J Murphy for Gavin (29 mins), D Reidy for Mullane (45 mins), P Browne for Stokes (69 mins).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
