Connacht club SFC quarter-final: Moycullen 3-18 Westport 1-12
November in Castlebar, sullen ash-grey skies overheard and heavy mucky conditions underfoot, Lee Keegan in the autumn of his career raging against the incoming winter. Not the kind of place a Galway team might necessarily choose for their maiden Connacht club championship meet and greet.
And yet Moycullen delivered a performance of poise and control in this provincial quarter-final at MacHale Park that suggested they will be right at home here with a team capable of hunkering down for the long-haul in this year’s club football campaign.
Certainly, if Dessie Conneely can maintain this level of form then Moycullen will take some beating in the weeks ahead – their captain scored ten points from ten shots. Try as they might, Westport couldn’t get a hand on the industrious forward.
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“He was excellent, in fairness to him,” said Moycullen manager Don Connellan. “He got a good supply of ball but he worked really hard as well.
“Dessie is just one of these lads that is constantly below at the pitch, he never takes a ball out of his hands, he’s constantly working on his game and you can even see the free-taking element to it, I don’t think he missed one.”
Conneely scored five from play and five from frees. All of that packaged off in about 50 minutes, as he was sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes in the closing stages.
“[It] probably hasn’t been going too well for me in the club championship,” stated Conneely afterwards. “Was a bit disappointed with some of the performances.
“Everything just seemed to go right today, the goal by Dan was key to give us a bit of breathing space to then push on and we didn’t come under too much pressure in the second half, we were able to see it out.”
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Daniel Cox’s goal just before half-time was indeed the score that knocked the belief out of Westport, as it sent Moycullen in at the interval with a 1-11 to 1-4 advantage.
Moycullen’s running game was the bedrock on which they built this victory, surging drives forward opened the Westport defence up time and time again. Owen Gallagher got through a mountain of work for Moycullen while the Kelly brothers - Seán, Eoin and Paul – were involved in so much of their positive play.
“The three of them, I don’t know what the mother is feeding them at home, the fridge must be empty,” joked Conneely.
Moycullen’s second and third goals, scored in the 50th and 59th minutes respectively, were carbon-copies – balls palmed to the net after patient build-up play with runners coming from deep.
“It’s back to basics this time of year, you mind the ball, you don’t give it away, you keep it in hand, and if you do the basics really well at this time of the year, it’s winter football, then you put yourself in with a good chance,” said Connellan.
Westport were left to rue some below par score-taking. In the opening quarter they dropped three efforts short, while over the course of the game they had three different players miss frees.
Still, a brilliantly taken goal by Brian McDermott in the ninth minute did push them 1-1 to 0-3 ahead. McDermott started the move himself, raced forward and took a return pass from Kevin Keane before drilling to the far corner of the Moycullen goal. But Westport only managed to score a further three points over the remainder of the half, compared to Moycullen’s 1-8.
Lee Keegan, who was sent off in the closing stages of the game on a quickfire pair of yellow cards, had a goal-bound shot brilliantly saved by Andrew Power early in the second half and from that moment onwards it always felt like it would be Moycullen’s day.
“It’s hard to claw back seven points, especially against a really good team,” admitted Westport manager Martin Connolly.
“We left ourselves with no platform in the second half but having said that we still had two good goal chances early in the second half and had either of them gone in we might have made more of it.”
It will be a learning experience for Westport, who were also appearing in the competition for the first time having won their inaugural Mayo SFC just two weeks ago.
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Moycullen this season claimed their second Galway SFC, but their first was achieved in 2020 when Covid determined there would be no provincial or All-Ireland club championship that year.
They progress now to face Strokestown in a Connacht semi-final, but some of the sheen from this win was sullied by an injury-time red card to David Wynne in what was the last passage of play.
“I didn’t actually see it and I would have to look back on it before I could even comment on it,” said Connellan. “Wynney is one of those wholehearted players and there certainly would be no malice in whatever he would do, I can guarantee you that.”
MOYCULLEN: A Power; C Corcoran, N Mulcahy, M Moughan; M Reilly, E Kelly (0-1), S Kelly; P Kelly (0-2), T Clarke; G Davoren, N Walsh (0-4, two frees), M O’Reilly (1-0); D Cox (1-0), D Conneely (0-10, five frees), O Gallagher (0-1). Subs: C Bohan for Cox (38 mins); A Claffey (1-0) for Moughan (45 mins); M Lydon for Clarke (57 mins); E Kenny for O’Reilly (58 mins); C Deane for S Kelly (61 mins).
WESTPORT: P O’Malley; R Brickenden (0-1), B McDermott (1-0), N McManamon; L Shevlin, L Keegan, P Lambert; F McDonagh (0-1), B O’Malley; C Dawson, O McLaughlin (0-2), L Tunney; K Keane, M Moran (0-1), K Kilkelly (0-7, five frees). Subs: E McLaughlin for O’Malley (16 mins); P Lambert for Dawson (ht); S Scott for Shevlin (ht); F McLaughlin for McManamon (45 mins); R Geraghty for E McLaughlin (61 mins).
Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon).
