Controversy as relentless Kilmaine power into the quarter-finals

GAA - MAYO INTERMEDIATE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP

Hollymount-Carramore 1-15

Kilmaine 0-18

In Garrymore

Where to begin when describing this show-stopping, thrill-a-minute game in the Mayo Intermediate Championship?

Let’s start with the bottom line: Kilmaine have booked their place in the knockout stages. But that only paints half a tale. Many aspects will linger and the winners will long cherish the result, but a wrongly-awarded two-pointer to Kilmaine after 28 minutes will surely capture headlines over the coming days.

With three minutes to play, and Hollymount-Carramore two up, it looked like Oliver Walsh and Alan Burke’s men were staring at the end of their season.

However, write them, and their incredulous forward Adam Barrett, off at your peril. He had already notched 1-27 across the championship, and eight in this game, with a spectacle of scoring.

When he had the ball in his hands and the chance to tie it up, Kilmaine knew the permutations. They knew that a draw would be enough, and he levelled it up.

When Michael Hession’s free sailed over soon after, the Garrymore stand was almost blasted into the clouds.

A late single for Hollymount Carramore proved fruitless, and come Declan Corcoran’s full-time whistle, the Kilmaine celebrations could be heard for miles.

In a game of such fine margins, Hollymount Carramore were always going to have their own moments in the sun.

Conor Heneghan was in fine fettle, and his two-pointer was a fine way to start the day’s scoring; however, he was withdrawn injured in the first half.

His replacement, Conor Kelly, picked up where Heneghan left off, and notched a pair of singles as well as teeing up Matthew Morris to roll the ball along the turf for the game’s sole goal.

Mark Concannon’s soldiers led all the way from the first minute to the 42nd.

That was in spite of a mammoth effort from the men in green and red. They pushed the tempo of this utter slugfest, which bore all the hallmarks of a typical do-or-die championship battle.

Naoise Burke was like a dynamo up and down the pitch for the chasers, with Andy Moran observing from the crowd, while goal-scorer Morris shone brightest under the floodlights for Hollymount Carramore.

With the clock in the red at the end of the first half, réiteoir Declan Corcoran awarded a penalty to Kilmaine, giving them a golden chance to forge a lead.

However, Barrett couldn’t convert, and there were some calls for another spot-kick to be given immediately after when Stephen Coen seemed to collide with the penalty taker; however, they perplexingly fell on deaf ears.

In fact, there were a few calls that drew confusion, the 28th-minute Kevin Mullin score, which was given as a two-pointer despite being well inside the arc, was the most controversial of all.

From the moment substitute Michael Hession struck his second score with 18 minutes to go, the heat in the Garrymore cauldron was cranked up to boiling hot.

Both sides went gung-ho with the season on the line, and Michael Hession’s placed ball saw Kilmaine lead for the first time.

It was the sort of game where if it had gone on for eternity, they still would have been neck-and-neck. Darren Coen was called from the bench to save the day for Hollymount Carramore, and he’ll be cursing himself after spurning a two-point and single free.

There will be plenty of protests in Hollymount Carramore at that ghost two-pointer, and there’s a sense this will linger.

However, Kilmaine won’t care how they got there. The fact is, they did, and now they sit three games away from the ultimate glory.

A full report, plus reaction, will be carried in Tuesday’s edition of The Mayo News.