AT A STRETCH Hollymount/Carramore’s Padraig Feerick has his jersey tugged by The Neale’s Aidan O’Sullivan during Sunday’s Mayo Intermediate FC Final. Pic: Michael Donnelly
Final
Hollymount/Carramore 0-11
The Neale 0-7
Mike Finnerty
Castlebar
IF you wanted to know how much this win meant to the players, mentors and supporters of Hollymount/Carramore, you only had to look down at the sea of faces when Darren Coen lifted the Sweeney Cup into the air on Sunday evening.
Friends, family members and long-suffering followers laughed and cried, and hugged and congratulated each other before roaring their approval as the trophy was presented.
This was the moment they had all been waiting for.
Nobody said it was going to be easy when Hollymount/Carramore set out on this journey more than four years ago, but last Sunday they reached their first significant milestone as an amalgamation at adult level.
And after finishing second best to Ballyhaunis twelve months ago, this time around it was all about the result.
As things transpired, the team that Tom Connelly and his selectors have rejuvenated this season produced a display that was more than good enough to get the job done.
For The Neale, there was to be no fairytale ending to their story of another great championship run.
Donal ‘Mossy’ Costello’s young squad will have learnt a lot from this experience, and there is no doubt that promotion through the Senior League would be a big help to their ambitions of winning an historic Intermediate title.
Goalkeeper Keith Hennelly pulled off a string of good stops while their defence held the winners to just eleven points (six of them from frees), but The Neale’s attack could only muster one score from play.
They also went almost thirty minutes of the second half without any score at all, and that is a damning statistic.
The likes of Steven Conroy, Seanie Cosgrove and Aidan O’Sullivan were forced to operate without either much time or space as Hollymount/Carramore’s well-engineered defensive system operated excellently.
The winners didn’t concede a single goal in any of their last three championship matches, and Niall Campbell’s fine early save from Paddy Hopkins was the only time he was called into action on Sunday.
Tom Connelly’s decision to start Darren McHugh (despite a serious knee injury) also paid rich dividends as the full-back curtailed the influence of The Neale’s dangerman, Seanie Cosgrove, while Kevin Costello put in a great shift covering back and kickstarting attacks from deep.
The game was won and lost during the third quarter as Hollymount/Carramore picked off four unanswered points to sprint 0-9 to 0-5 ahead.
Two frees from Darren Coen (who was always dangerous without ever cutting loose) were sandwiched between two superb points from play from Ian and Kevin Costello.
With The Neale’s resistance crumbling as a result of those scores, Hollymount/Carramore extended their advantage with two long-range frees from the big boot of Ian Costello in the 52nd and 55th minutes to make the game safe.
The winners had thirteen men behind the ball at times as The Neale were manufacturing their attacks, and no amount of hard running and diagonal deliveries was able to bypass Stephen Coen, Robert Molloy, Barry Sheridan and company.
The Neale finally opened their second half account on 58 minutes when the lion-hearted Killian McHugh smacked over a point and Seanie Cosgrove nailed a free three minutes into injury-time to round off the scoring.
However, they never looked remotely like creating the goal chance they needed to mount a proper rescue mission.
In the opening half, Hollymount/Carramore did their best to kick the game away; racking up ten wides with some shocking shooting to leave The Neale in contention.
The winners never fell behind but some fine scores from Darren Coen, Keelan McNamara and Kevin Feerick were cancelled out by Aidan O’Sullivan, Killian McHugh and Robert Holian as The Neale held their own at half-time.
The Hollymount/Carramore lads had a decision to make at the break and, to their credit, they stuck to the game-plan and eventually wore their opponents down.
Hard work and desire, sprinkled with some flair, were the match-winning ingredients in the end.
Just like the old days.
Hollymount/Carramore
N Campbell; R Connelly, D McHugh, D Feerick; P Feerick, B Sheridan, R Molloy; K McNamara (0-1), S Coen; K Feerick (0-2, 1f), I Costello (0-4, ’45, 2fs), K Costello (0-1); C Keane, D Coen (0-3, 2fs), C Connolly.
Subs used: D Kelly for Connolly; D Costello for Keane; A Fahey for McNamara; L Macken for Connelly; O Gill for McHugh.
The Neale
K Hennelly; E Hughes, D Morrin, S Morrin; K McHugh (0-2), P Casey, D McGrath; R Holian (0-1), J Biggins; P Walsh, S Ryan, S Conroy; P Hopkins, S Cosgrove (0-3, ’45,2fs), A O’Sullivan (0-1).
Subs used: J Duffy for Conroy (inj); J O’Donnell for Hopkins.
Referee: J Henry (Castlebar Mitchels)
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